December 2013 Ms A, a female official, was working alone with Alex Salmond late at night in Bute House, a Georgian townhouse that is the official residence of Scotland’s first minister in central Edinburgh. She alleges Salmond sexually assaulted her in his bedroom, after they had both drunk spirits, a claim he denies and of which he was acquitted at trial in 2020. She tells close colleagues an incident has taken place, and senior officials and a political adviser in Salmond’s private office are informed. It is decided her complaint will be dealt with informally rather than under the government’s Fairness at Work policy; under that policy, her complaint could have been referred to Nicola Sturgeon, who as deputy first minister was responsible for complaints involving ministers. Salmond denies anything criminal took place but apologises to Ms A in his office, without witnesses present. September 2014 The Scottish National party loses the independence referendum after voters decide by 55% to 45% to remain in the UK. Salmond announces he will resign as first minister and leader of the SNP in November 2014 and is succeeded as SNP leader by his then deputy, Nicola Sturgeon.
November 2017 Spurred on by the #MeToo crisis, the Scottish government announces it will produce a new sexual harassment policy that will include ministers. In early November, Ms A comes forward to tell officials a new policy has to be effective, and gives an account of how the alleged incident in December 2013 was dealt with. Ms A meets and exchanges emails about the policy, and her potential complaint, with senior civil servants in November and December 2017. These include Judith Mackinnon, a human resources official, who meets her to discuss the policy. Mackinnon talks to the second potential complainer, Ms B, by phone, email and text. The potential complaints become known to the permanent secretary, Leslie Evans, and senior officials. It is agreed the policy will be made retrospective, to include former ministers. January 2018 Soon after the policy comes into effect, Ms A and Ms B make official complaints against Salmond, and the Scottish government launches its first inquiry under the new harassment code to investigate both complaints. Judith McKinnon is appointed investigating officer. March 2018 Geoff Aberdein, Salmond’s former chief of staff, calls four people, including Salmond, and alleges a senior aide to Sturgeon gave him the name of a complainer. That name is understood to be Ms A. The aide, in confidential testimony to James Hamilton and the Holyrood inquiry, denies offering any names and says Aberdein mentioned one to them first. Summer 2018 As part of the internal review process, Ms A and Ms B tell the officials investigating their complaints they do not want them passed to the police. Evans disagrees: she decides the government has a duty to report potential criminality, if it is suspected, and says that is set out in the harassment policy.
August 2018 On 21 August, the government inquiry upholds Ms A and Ms B’s complaints. The report has never been made public. Evans decides its conclusions have to be passed to Police Scotland for investigation. The chief constable, Iain Livingstone, and Det Ch Sup Lesley Boal, head of its public protection unit, get the complainers’ names at a meeting with the crown agent David Harvie, a senior prosecutor, along with a summary of their allegations. Livingston and Boal are told the government might make a public statement about the inquiry and the police referral; they caution against it. The next day, Evans tells Salmond the government intends to make a statement but dropps that plan after Salmond threatens legal action. On 23 August, the story that Salmond has been reported to police over allegedly criminal harassment allegations is leaked to the Record. Salmond, who denies any criminal misconduct or harassment, sues the government over its handling of the internal investigation by launching a judicial review. January 2019 On 8 January, Salmond wins his judicial review on procedural grounds because of Mackinnon’s conflict of interest. The court finds this gave the inquiry “the appearance of bias”. The Scottish government report and its findings are voided, which means the complaints by Ms A and Ms B are no longer upheld. Salmond is later awarded £512,000 in legal costs. It later emerges that senior counsel warned Evans and Sturgeon in late 2018 the extent of Mackinnon’s prior dealings with both complainers was fatal to the government’s case, and said the government should concede. Evans and Sturgeon believe there are public interest reasons for defending the case, but admit defeat when further material about Mackinnon’s contacts with the complainers emerge. Two weeks later, Salmond appears in Edinburgh sheriff court on 14 counts of sexual and indecent assault, and of breach of the peace. Those charges and the final indictment published in November 2019 include both Ms A and Ms B’s complaints. March 2020 Salmond goes on trial on 14 counts of sexual assault, including an alleged sexual assault with intent to rape of Ms A at Bute House in December 2013, and the alleged sexual assault of Ms B at a later date. Giving evidence, Ms A alleges Salmond had insisted they go to his bedroom at Bute House, told her to sit on the bed, had lain on top of her, while drunk, sexually assaulted her and forced his hands under her dress. Salmond denies in court he did so but says the pair had a “sleepy cuddle” on his bed, for which he had apologised. The trial also hears the senior officials in Salmond’s office involved in handling the incident with Ms A in December 2013 decide informally not to allow women to work alone with Salmond at Bute House, because of concerns about his alleged conduct. Salmond tells the court he knows of no such policy. After one charge is dropped mid-trial, the jury acquits Salmond of the remaining 13 charges: Ms A’s complaint is found not proven, an acquittal verdict different from not guilty; he is found not guilty of assaulting Ms B.
April 2020 to date The Scottish parliament sets up a special committee chaired by its deputy presiding officer, a former government minister, Linda Fabiani, to investigate the botched government inquiry. It agrees not to consider any evidence from the criminal trial, which means it cannot investigate what civil servants did or knew in Ms A’s case in December 2013, or discover more about claims of an unwritten policy not to allow women to work alone with Salmond at Bute House. Parliament lawyers warn that legislation from 2010 bars the use of evidence submitted to a criminal investigation and that a court order imposed during the trial bars MSPs from disclosing evidence that might identify a complainer. 15 March 2021 Ms A and Ms B give evidence in private to a special Holyrood committee investigating the Scottish government’s botched internal inquiry into their complaints. They tell MSPs that while Salmond was first minister there was a culture of complacency and inaction inside the government about ministers’ conduct, saying: “There were not clear boundaries for what was appropriate behaviour, or leadership in the organisation to challenge behaviours.”