The "plot" to imprison Alex Salmond

Had his SNP accusers had their way the former SNP First Minister might have died in jail, not at a dinner table in Macedonia

Salmond was “toast” said everyone.

Alex Salmond’s body has only recently returned to Scotland from North Macedonia, where he died of a suspected heart attack, but already the battle over his reputation isn well under way. One side see him as the victim of a conspiracy by an SNP clique, inspired if not led by Nicola Sturgeon, to imprison him on trumped-up charges.  The other side regard him as a sleazy sexual predator who’s lucky to have died a free man. I’ve been following this case closely for many years and these are my thoughts for what it’s worth.

Let’s start with where the law stands. In March 2020, Alex Salmond was acquitted of all charges of sexual harassment and assault in the High Court after a two week trial.  At the opening he faced 14 sexual offences including attempted rape, intent to rape, plus numerous charges of sexual assault and indecent assault.   The jury found him not guilty on all charges.  He was found not proven on one charge of sexual assault, which, confusingly, is also an acquittal verdict in Scots law.

The jury was composed of a eight women and five men.  The judge was Lady Dorrian, the Lord Justice Clerk, who was/is a senior figure well known for her concern that so-called “rape myths” held by jury members may partially explain the low rate of rape convictions.  No one could therefore reasonably accuse this court of having been set up to “excuse the behaviour of powerful men” as  Nicola Sturgeon later put it.

Yet the belief persisted that, in some vaguely patriarchal way, it was not a fair trial.  This was still the era of #metoo and the slogan #believeher.  A number of female, and male, journalists clearly thought that the mere fact of the rape allegations being made rendered Salmond guilty by definition. “Nine women couldn’t all have been lying” as they said on social media. This, even though the actual charge of attempted rape was dropped by the prosecution.

Why was Salmond still held in such suspicion and indeed contempt even after he was cleared?