A hearing to consider the misconduct of a Scots councillor convicted of sexual assault has been postponed.
Former Conservative Alan Donnelly who was convicted of sexual assault was suspended from Aberdeen City Council in March.
The former deputy provost was found guilty of the assault in December and placed on the sex offenders register.
He had denied touching his victim’s face, hair and body and kissing him on the face.
A Standards Commission panel was due to gather at Aberdeen's Town House on Tuesday to consider what action to take.
The 65-year-old resigned from the Tories but had resisted calls to stand down.
The Standards Commission said in March that the Torry and Ferrhill councillor's suspension would begin immediately and initially last for three months.
The watchdog said at the time that it was satisfied that it was "both proportionate and in the public interest to impose an interim suspension".
The Standards Commission has rescheduled the hearing for Friday November 20.
A spokesman the postponement had been "at the request of the respondent, who provided evidence to demonstrate he was unable to attend".
It was moved, a spokeswoman said, as Mr Donnelly had “provided evidence to demonstrate that he was unable to attend”.
The watchdog said last week that no observers would be allowed into the Town House to observe proceedings Mr Donnelly has been part of the ruling Conservative, Labour and independent administration.
During the trial, Mr Donnelly had denied kissing and touching a man who was working at an event in the city.
However, he was found guilty and ordered to pay compensation.
Sheriff Ian Wallace told the former deputy lord provost he had given evidence which was “untrue” and sentenced to an eight-month supervision order, placed on the sex offenders register and ordered to pay his victim £800 in compensation.
While the councillor has resigned as a member of the Scottish Conservatives he has so far resisted calls to resign as an independent member.
He was referred to the public standards watchdog following his conviction.
The Standards Commission said in March that it had been told Mr Donnelly was considering lodging an appeal against conviction.
The watchdog said: "The panel determined that it was in the public interest to impose an interim suspension, to maintain public confidence in the ethical standards framework in Scotland."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel