Alex Salmond revealed to be a ‘creep’ despite acquittal, claims witness

A defence witness at the recent trial of Alex Salmond has described him as a “creep” despite the former SNP leader being cleared on all charges.

Alex Salmond speaks to reporters on Monday after being cleared of all charges at the High Court in Edinburgh

Alex Bell, who served as a speechwriter and special advisor under the former First Minister, said Mr Salmond had been cleared in court by effectively arguing “I’m sleazy, but not criminal”.

A jury at the High Court in Edinburgh returned 11 verdicts of not guilty and one of not proven on Monday. An earlier charge was dropped.

Mr Salmond, who dropped out of frontline politics in 2017 after losing his Gordon constituency to the Conservatives, had been charged with multiple counts of sexual assault dating back to his time as First Minister of Scotland.

“That politics is showbusiness for ugly people is well known – what’s less understood is that it is high society for the socially awkward, Mr Bell said in a column in the Dundee Courier.

“People who otherwise would be left off the invite list get to dance all night. And Alex loved that.

“Little wonder his QC Gordon Jackson may have wished Salmond a “better man”, but instead he was the guy delighted to be let in who was going to make the most of it.

“A married, avowedly Christian man is revealed as a creep.”

He continued: “Salmond is driven by a core insecurity which is compensated for by a determination to defeat all comers.

“Why’s he insecure? I’m a writer, not a shrink. What I do know is that he will not step back. He’d rather win the argument than be right. Though the two may be confused in his mind.

“If there’s a sleaze/criminal boundary, then there is an even murkier circumstance/conspiracy blur. Alex Salmond told the court he believed there was a “conspiracy” against him. He says the details of this will emerge.”

Meanwhile, a senior SNP MP described the political fall-out from the Salmond trial as “just another bump in the road” for the Scottish independence movement.

Kenny MacAskill, a former Holyrood justice secretary, dismissed predictions the campaign for an independent Scotland would be damaged by a jury’s decision to acquit Mr Salmond on all charges at the High Court in Edinburgh on Monday.

Writing in today’s Scotsman, the MP for East Lothian said the wider independence movement was “bigger than any individual”.

But Mr MacAskill also warned there needed to be “resignations” from the SNP over how initial complaints against its former leader were handled, suggesting that some in the party had acted “despicably”.