Who Called in the Cops?

 After going over the detailed timeline of the Salmond affair it appears that the Crown Office (COPFS - Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service) were responsible for calling in the cops on 21 August 2018.

The significance of this date is that it came immediately after the Scottish Government had completed its own internal enquiries.

Just three days later (Friday 24 August 2018) the news of Police Scotland's involvement was splashed all over the Daily Record - forcing Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon to give 'on the record' media interviews.

Presumably the reference COPFS had to me made by the Scottish Government itself, on the basis of an official report from the Permanent Secretary, Leslie Evans.

The details of the Scottish Government report have never been made public, even in redacted form, because its own investigation was subsequently declared to be unlawful and tainted with bias by the Court of Session - following a successful challenge by Alex Salmond.

Normally the police investigate allegations of criminality and report their findings to the Procurator Fiscal, but in this highly unusual case the process seems to have happened the other way round - having been initiated by the Crown Office (COPFS).      

  

Who Called in the Cops? (23/02/21)

It's hard to disagree with The Herald's Iain Macwhirter who argues that the SNP Government is wholly responsible for the epic scandal surrounding its handling of sexual harassment allegations. 

"The true author of this cover-up-that-isn’t is not the Crown Office, of course, but the SNP Government. The harassed harassment committee has voted essentially on party lines throughout on this pro-Government majority. The SNP MSP George Adam took the extraordinary step last week of accusing members of the Corporate Body of “jeopardising the court-ordered anonymity of complainants in sexual offences cases”. “What if it had been their wife, their daughter, their mother,” he went on, “would they have made the same decision?” To suggest that fellow MSPs on this body, who are elected by the Parliament, would risk the welfare of complainants is astonishing."

One thing that is still as clear as mud, to me at least, is how did Police Scotland become involved - who referred the case to the police and on what basis? 

Because the Court of Session judgement did not instruct the Scottish Government to make the case a criminal matter - all it did was strike down the original, flawed  investigation. 

So who decided the Scottish Government should wash its hands of the affair since this raised the evidential bar from the civil test of 'on the balance of evidence' to the much more demanding criminal test of 'beyond a reasonable doubt'?