Police are investigating a new allegation of sexual assault against Alex Salmond weeks after the former Scottish First Minister’s death.
A woman reported the incident – said to be non-recent – to police shortly after Mr Salmond’s death aged 69 on October 12.
Up to six women approached the SNP more than two years ago lodging complaints about Mr Salmond’s behaviour, it previously emerged.
The complaints, allegedly of a sexual nature, are understood to have been reported to the party’s compliance officer, Ian McCann, who was in charge of disciplinary issues.
They were then said to have been brought to the attention of the SNP’s former chief executive, Peter Murrell, but were not taken any further.
Alex Salmond (pictured) died suddenly in Macedonia during lunch at a conference on October 12
Now, the SNP is preparing for more women to possibly come forward with sexual claims against the former party leader.
Mr Salmond’s alleged inappropriate behaviour, which is said to date back almost 40 years, was apparently well known among leadership figures and aides, a senior party insider claimed.
‘Around two years ago five or six complaints of inappropriate behaviour of a sexual nature were reported to the party and went as far as Peter Murrell,’ the insider said.
‘The allegations date as far back as the 1980s, including in Alex’s Banff and Buchan constituency.’
Mr Salmond left Edinburgh’s High Court in March 2020, after being cleared of 14 counts of sexual assault and attempted rape.
At the time of his death last month, the politician was in the middle of suing the Scottish Government for its handling of complaints against him.
The Scottish Government had pledged to vigorously contest the legal action.
This week, Mr Salmond was honoured and remembered with tears and laughter at his funeral as a leader who took Scotland ‘so close to his dream of independence’.
At the time of his death last month, Mr Salmond was in the middle of suing the Scottish Government for its handling of complaints against him
Among the mourners were Mr Salmond’s widow, Moira, and House of Commons speaker John Bercow, who gathered to pay tribute to the politician after he died suddenly in Macedonia during lunch at a conference.
The former SNP leader, who later went on to set up the Alba Party, had been speaking at the event when he suffered a heart attack.
At the funeral in Strichen, Aberdeenshire, where Mr Salmond lived, he was hailed by a number of giants in Scottish politics.
Kenny MacAskill, justice secretary in Mr Salmond’s government, called him ‘a giant of a man, the leader of our country, the leader of our movement’, before describing him as ‘an inspiration, a political genius, an orator, debater and communicator without parallel’.
