Alex Salmond, the former first minister of Scotland and leader of the SNP, has been cleared of all charges of sexual assault.
The former first minister had been charged with 13 offences against nine women, including indecent assault, sexual assault and intent to rape. A further charge of sexual assault against a tenth woman was dropped by the prosecution earlier in the trial. Salmond has denied all the charges.
Today, at the High Court in Edinburgh, a jury found Salmond not guilty of 12 of those offences, and declared that the 13th offence was ‘not proven’. The ‘not proven’ verdict is unique to the Scottish courts, and leaves the accused innocent in the eyes of the law.
After his acquittal, Salmond told journalists: ‘As many of you will know, there is certain evidence I would have like to have seen led in this trial but for a variety of reasons we were not able to do so… At some point, that information, that facts and that evidence will see the light of day.’
