Alex Salmond’s acquittal on Monday of all the 13 sexual offence charges against him marked the end of a dramatic episode in the former Scottish first minister’s roller-coaster career — and the opening of a new and uncertain chapter for the Scottish National party he once led.
Mr Salmond’s defence against the charges, including attempted rape and other sexual and indecent assaults against a total of nine women, had rested in part on claims that he was the victim of “political fabrications” that all stemmed from within the “political bubble”.
The jury’s rejection of the charges — which were based on allegations made by officials of the Scottish government, civil servants, an SNP politician and a party worker — will fuel calls from Salmond supporters for an accounting within the governing party.
“Some resignations now required,” Kenny MacAskill, an SNP member of the UK parliament who is highly supportive of Mr Salmond, tweeted after the verdict at the High Court in Edinburgh.
Joanna Cherry, another sympathetic SNP MP, called for “an independent inquiry into how the SNP dealt with these allegations”.
Making clear he regarded the case as not yet closed, Mr Salmond promised outside the court that information he had wanted to have presented at the trial would now “see the light of day”.
That helped set the stage for increased friction between Mr Salmond and his successor as SNP leader and first minister, Nicola Sturgeon. Ms Sturgeon, a former Salmond protégé, has faced growing internal criticism in recent years over what some supporters of the former leader see as her overly cautious approach to pushing for a second referendum on Scottish independence.
Preliminary hearings for Mr Salmond’s trial, which could not be reported until its conclusion, had already underlined tensions between some in the Scottish government and the accused.
At the hearings, defence lawyer Gordon Jackson QC argued that there was evidence of collusion among Mr Salmond’s alleged victims.
Mr Jackson claimed that one, a senior government official, had a clear motivation to influence the criminal process against Mr Salmond after his successful legal challenge against a 2018 civil service-led investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against him.
Mr Jackson quoted a message from an SNP politician as saying she thought the senior government official was “in trouble” and that Mr Salmond “isn’t going to stop until he gets her and he is bringing down Nicola on the way”.
He separately cited a message from Leslie Evans, the permanent secretary to the Scottish government and Scotland’s most senior civil servant, in which she said of the botched investigation into Mr Salmond: “We may lose the battle, but we will win the war.”
How deep the SNP splits become may depend on how members now feel about Mr Salmond, who led the party from a fringe political force to government and a 2014 independence referendum that was lost by a surprisingly narrow 55-45 per cent margin.
Mr Salmond’s star had already waned after he lost his Westminster seat in 2017 and his personal reputation is likely to have suffered from a trial in which his own lawyer admitted the former first minister had acted “inappropriately” with much younger female subordinates.
While a majority of the jury found Mr Salmond not guilty of 12 of the charges, it found one of the most serious, of sexual assault with intent to rape, “not proven” — a unique Scottish verdict that has the same legal effect, but is often seen to signal doubt on the part of jurors.
Mr Salmond himself acknowledged that a sexual encounter with a civil servant had taken place in 2013 at his official residence, Bute House in Edinburgh, but insisted that this and another encounter with a different woman the same year were entirely consensual.
Pressure from Salmond supporters will not be the only post-trial problem for Ms Sturgeon. Opposition parties are pushing for a full accounting of what the current first minister knew about allegations of misconduct against her predecessor and when she knew it.
The trial also raises questions for the civil service. Three male senior civil servants called as witnesses told the court that after the 2013 incident at Bute House, arrangements were changed to prevent female staff from being alone with the first minister, particularly in the evenings.
And Alex Bell, a former policy adviser to Mr Salmond, told the court that three years earlier there had been concerns then about him being alone with female colleagues.
The full political ramifications of Mr Salmond’s acquittal are likely to be delayed by the UK’s developing coronavirus crisis, however. The former first minister said he would not immediately share the information on the case because of the epidemic, telling journalists gathered at the court that it was not safe to be there and they should “go home”.
Opposition parties will also be cautious about focusing too much on the issue before coronavirus is tamed. Last week, Jackson Carlaw, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, gave Ms Sturgeon a fulsome endorsement, saying he had “every confidence in her to lead the country’s response to this crisis at this time”.
On Monday, Mr Carlaw said the “serious questions” Ms Sturgeon and the SNP faced would be deferred. “The court case may be over, but for them this is just the beginning,” he said.
