SNP chief told of Linden complaints 10 years ago, says ex-official

Former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell was informed of complaints about Jordan Linden a decade ago, according to an ex-member of the Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP).

Linden, a former leader of North Lanarkshire Council, was found guilty of five sexual assaults against young men last month.

Former Labour election candidate Amy Lee Fraioli, who was on the board of the SYP in 2016, said its then chief executive had told Murrell it was investigating allegations of sexual misconduct.

Since Linden's conviction, SNP leader John Swinney has apologised to his victims and announced an independent review of the party's complaints procedures.

Linden, 30, was active for many years in the SNP's youth wing and became chairman of the youth parliament in 2015 but stepped down the following year after explicit images of him began to circulate among its members.

Last month he was convicted of 10 charges including five sexual assaults and sending unwanted sexual communications to teenagers between 2011 and 2021.

Fraioli confirmed to BBC Scotland News that the SYP began receiving reports in 2016 about members being sent sexual images, and decided to bring in a private law firm to investigate the complaints.

She said the youth parliament's officials were at the time based in the same Edinburgh building as the SNP, and the SYP's chief executive Ben McKendrick told Murrell about the probe.

"He went up and he spoke to Peter Murrell, he informed him of the investigation and the fact that it was taking place at that time in 2016," she told the Mail on Sunday, which first reported the story.

The law firm found no evidence of wrongdoing and in 2017 Linden was elected as a councillor in North Lanarkshire.

Five years later he became the authority's leader but resigned two months later when more allegations of sexual harassment emerged.

Fraioli, now 27, first became involved with the SYP when she was a teenager and became its chair in 2017.

Asked about Fraioli's claim while campaigning on Easter Monday, John Swinney said he had "no knowledge of the substance of these points".

He continued: "What I have done is I've made sure we have a strong complaints handling process and that we will subject that to independent review.

"That's the right thing to do to make sure that anyone who feels the behaviour of another individual is not appropriate has got the ability to complain.

"I recognise that people have suffered enormously as a consequence of the behaviour of Jordan Linden for which he is responsible and the SNP will take the action we need to make sure we have got an effective approach in place to protect individuals at all times."