Shamed Bill Walker set for early prison release

Bill Walker: Disgraced former MSP set for early release. Picture: Toby Williams

The ex-SNP politician was jailed after being exposed as a violent and abusive partner over a 28-year span in court.

Walker was found guilty of 23 charges of assault against his wives Maureen Traquair, Anne Gruber and Diana Walker, and Mrs Gruber’s 16-year-old daughter Anne Louise Paterson in September last year.

Sheriff Mackie said at the time that Walker had failed to show any remorse for the “profound physical and psychological harm” he did to his victims.

Walker, of Alloa in Clackmannanshire, was found guilty of assaulting his first wife Ms Traquair on three separate occasions in the 1960s and 1980s. On one occasion he punched her in the face, giving her a black eye two weeks before they married.

He was convicted of assaulting his second wife, Mrs Gruber, 15 times between 1978 and 1984. He also breached the peace by leaping into Mrs Gruber’s home brandishing an air rifle. Walker was also found guilty of assaulting and injuring Mrs Gruber’s daughter, Anne Louise, by repeatedly striking her on the head with a saucepan in 1978.

He was found guilty of four assaults on his third wife, Diana Walker, between June 1988 and January 1995.

Tory MSP Murdo Fraser said Walker’s imminent freedom exposed the “nonsense” of the automatic early release system.

Graeme Pearson, Scottish Labour’s Justice spokesman, said: “Many people will be disappointed Bill Walker has only served six months of a 12-month sentence. If anything, this is likely to focus people’s minds that the sentence people get in court is not the time they serve in practice.”