A councillor who was suspended from the SNP after paedophile Jordan Linden’s conviction has been readmitted to the party.
Tracy Carragher, who appeared as a defence witness for Linden during his trial, was suspended by John Swinney and dropped as a Holyrood candidate amid claims she failed to handle allegations about the sex predator properly, which she denied.
In March, Linden was found guilty of ten charges involving five young men and boys over a decade. He is serving an 18-month sentence and will be on the sex offenders’ register for ten years.
Ms Carragher took over the role of leader of the SNP group on North Lanarkshire Council from Linden in 2022 after he quit when sex offence claims against him emerged.
Cameron McManus, a former SNP North Lanarkshire councillor, reported Linden to police in 2023.
He claimed he had been harassed by Linden during their time as councillors and while on an SNP youth trip to Barcelona in 2016.
Tracy Carragher has been readmitted to the SNP
Giving evidence against Linden, Mr McManus said he had been failed by the SNP and specifically pointed the finger at Ms Carragher.
Mr McManus said he had confided in Ms Carragher in 2022 about his experience, but claimed she took no action.
Last night, the North Lanarkshire SNP Group said Ms Carragher’s administrative suspension had been lifted following the conclusion of an independent investigation ‘carried out by an independent advocate and barrister’.
It said the investigation concluded that evidence supported Ms Carragher’s position that ‘no complaint was communicated to her requiring action on her part’ and she did not cover up a complaint concerning Linden.
When she was suspended by the SNP in April, Ms Carragher had been due to stand as a regional list candidate in Central Scotland and Lothians West in the Holyrood election. She was also removed as leader of the council’s SNP group.
The SNP group statement said Ms Carragher has faced ‘significant public, political and personal consequences’ as a result of ‘an allegation now rejected by an independent investigation’.
It added: ‘The Group reaffirms its full confidence in councillor Carragher as SNP Group Leader, as it has done throughout this process.
‘The Group will now consider what further steps are required to correct the public record and address the consequences of those allegations.’
Reacting to news that Ms Carragher had been readmitted to the SNP, Mr McManus said: ‘This whole process has caused a huge amount of stress and damage to me and my colleagues, yet it seems the SNP are content to accept no responsibility.
‘I’m deeply disappointed in these findings and am considering how to take this forward.’
Jordan Linden was found guilty of sex crimes
Predator Linden was jailed for the sex crimes at Falkirk Sheriff Court in May.
Sheriff Christopher Shead imposed an 18-month term for the most serious of his crimes, where he sexually assaulted a man who considered him a friend while he was asleep at his flat.
Linden received a concurrent 12-month sentence for sexually assaulting a young SNP activist during a Pride party in Dundee in 2019, and nine-month concurrent sentences for the other eight charges of which he was found guilty.
He was also placed on the sex offenders’ register for ten years.
During earlier proceedings, the court heard one of Linden’s victims was 17, while he also sexually harassed a 14-year-old boy.
Jurors heard Linden had stroked and touched his victims inappropriately and sent partially naked and sometimes explicit selfies to them.
Witnesses also spoke of him getting into beds or bunks with them and trying to pull at their belts and waistbands.
