'Mr Anti-Sleaze' is jailed for sex attack

Veteran trade unionist Rab Knox, 61, who was dubbed Labour’s "Mr Anti-Sleaze" in the late 90s, was working as a private-hire car driver when he attacked the 29-year-old.

The former national union organiser pleaded guilty at Edinburgh Sheriff Court to carrying out the attack in the city’s Bingham area.

The court heard that Knox, of Blackchapel Close, Niddrie, had "forcibly" kissed the woman, who was sitting in the front passenger seat of his private-hire car. He then forced her to perform a sex act in the vehicle - which was parked in Bingham Way - on December 3, 2002.

Knox was jailed for three years, but is understood to have appealed against his sentence. The 61-year-old rose to prominence after challenging the way public funds were wasted by regeneration groups in Craigmillar in the late 90s.

He was known as Labour’s "sleaze-buster" for his outspoken criticism of those running the community organisations.

Knox - who also unsuccessfully stood as a candidate in the city’s Alnwickhill ward during the 1992 local authority elections - is understood to have had close links with senior members of the Capital’s ruling Labour administration before quitting the party about six years ago.

Former Labour Party colleagues were today stunned to learn of the conviction. City council leader Donald Anderson said: "This is a shock. I don’t think anybody would have conceived that this could have happened."

A former full-time organiser for the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers, Knox previously served as chairman of Craigmillar Regeneration Action Group.

He made headlines as a vocal critic of community groups in the area after their poor financial management was condemned in an independent report.

He joined the Labour Party during the 60s and was became a well-known activist in the Edinburgh East and Musselburgh constituency.

But in 1999, Knox quit the Labour Party in disgust after 32 years when disgraced former councillor David Brown was re-elected to chair the area’s constituency party. At the time, Knox claimed a Labour "mafia" was running the deprived estate.

The area has seen almost 100 million in urban aid pumped into it over 15 years but remains one of Scotland’s most poverty-stricken zones. Mr Brown, who was a councillor for almost 30 years, was thrown out of the city council’s ruling Labour group in 1998.

He could not stand for re-election after being found guilty of breaching six sections of the Local Government Code of Conduct by helping Catherine McVey - mother of his friend and former Labour regional councillor Paul Nolan - leapfrog the waiting list to get a home in Newcraighall. Knox had tried to stand as an "anti-sleaze" candidate for Labour in the 1999 council elections, but was prevented from doing so after Mr Brown called for a vote to remove him as a nominee. Mr Brown’s ally, Jack O’Donnell, was later elected instead.

Knox was instrumental in the creation of the Craigmillar Community Council and was a vocal opponent of Mr Nolan and Mr Brown - who both held senior positions with a number of local groups.