Where Alex Salmond used a legal blunderbuss Nicola Sturgeon used a subtle knife to eviscerate the man she called her one time “bestie”. Steering one degree north of defamation throughout, she turned last week's hearing, which was supposed to be an examination of the Scottish government's unlawful behaviour, into a ruthless deconstruction of Alex Salmond's integrity.

“I'm not going to apologise for Alex Salmond”, she announced, not that anyone was expecting her to. His “deeply inappropriate behaviour to women” she said, was at the centre of it all. She was “almost physically sick” after she heard the nature of the allegations against her former mentor and leader. “Ma' head was spinning'”, she added, explaining why she couldn't be expected to remember those meetings with Salmond's aides where she first learned of his calumny.

Nor did she remember any meetings, to which lawyers testified, where a complainant's name was leaked, illegally. She said she didn't even know the names of all the complainants, a claim that sounds so unbelievable it must be true. Nor did she know anything about leaks of lurid allegations to the Daily Record – leaks so detailed that they could only have come from someone very close to the investigation.

In fact, she didn't appear to know very much at all about l’affaire Salmond. Can't answer that...I didn't know...you tell me? The egregious and in her own words “catastrophic” mistakes occurred below her pay grade. Yet these mistakes led the highest civil court in the land to rule that the Scottish Government she leads had been “unlawful and unfair etc..”

What she couldn't help knowing was that the government's external lawyers, led by Roddy Dunlop QC, now Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, had said they'd probably lose that case months before it reached the Court of Session. He even threatened to walk in the end, over evidence withheld and untruths told. But the First Minister insisted that her Lord Advocate had disagreed. James Wolffe QC thought that they should proceed with the doomed defence. Just grin an bear it. Risk the public and costly humiliation of a rebuke by the judge, Lord Pentland. Perhaps something would turn up? Like, er, a criminal case against Alex Salmond.

It was “all in the context of MeToo” she said repeatedly, as if that justified everything. There'd been all those allegations of sexual harassment, by the lawyer, Aamar Anwar, in the Sunday Herald. Something had to be done. She was not going to “allow a powerful man to follow the age-old path of getting what he wants”. Even if that was a desire to have his name cleared.

After all, this was Scotland's Harvey Weinstein moment, as journalists and commentators have repeatedly suggested. The only difference being that the former Hollywood producer, exposed by #metoo, was a known sexual predator and convicted rapist who is now serving 23 years in jail. Alex Salmond was acquitted of all charges by a female-dominated jury. In all his 35 years in the public eye he has never attracted even rumours of sexual misconduct. As Nicola Sturgeon herself used to say: ”Alex Salmond hasn't a sexist bone in his body”.

All the more reason for her hurt now. Ms Sturgeon choked back tears as she reflected on their time together. She insisted she had no reason to “want to get Alex Salmond”. His conspiracy claims were “absurd”. Not a million miles from providing any evidence. “Where is it?”, she asked.

Well Mr Salmond would say a lot of it is still with the Crown Office. But the texts and messages, she said, really didn't prove a thing. She'd looked into them and “in context” they were just people talking. “Women supporting each other” As they do. No conspiracy.

The BBC always says after these political confrontations that there was “no knockout blow”, and of course there wasn't. The First Minister has pretty clearly misled parliament, but that will no doubt be excused as a lapse of memory while her head was spinning. Nicola Sturgeon is not going to resign over a technical breach of the ministerial code. But of course Alex Salmond never said she should.

This inquiry, as the UK media never quite grasped, was about the Scottish Government's unlawful conduct, something that the committee will no doubt agree involved “catastrophic” failures for which someone, somewhere, in must surely bear responsibility. Not least for the treatment of the women. As the Conservative MSP Margaret Mitchell said – and kept on saying like a broken record – the original complainants had not wanted to go to the police; Ms Sturgeon's zealous officials did it for them. This, even after the police had told them that the women should have been referred first to the advocacy and advice services.

What happened thereafter strays into Alex Salmond's claims of collusion – matters which are not directly to do with the committee's remit. The former First minister has accused four former colleagues, including Chief Executive, Peter Murrell (Ms Sturgeon's husband) and Chief of Staff, Liz Lloyd, of a “malicious and deliberate” attempt to ruin his reputation and put him in jail. He has accused them, in effect, of conspiracy to obstruct the course of justice.

These breath-taking allegations remain hanging in the air. What was the meaning of the various fragmentary text messages that Mr Salmond alleges revealed a cack-handed attempt to “get him”. An attempt to meddle in the police investigation and procure new allegations? “Ask the police what they want and we'll get it”...”I have a plan”...”the more fronts he is fighting on the better”...etc.

These messages may eventually find their way in full into a court of law - perhaps in defamation or damages actions. Alex Salmond is not saying what he'll do next, but he's unlikely to let matters rest. He has to recover hundreds of thousands in legal costs if nothing else. He is defamed daily on social media and his reputation is trash.

What Salmond can't expect is any reconciliation with his former party – at least under the present leadership. The SNP remains traumatised by the divorce of its greatest stars. Most party members are in despair. Influential insiders believe that there was at the very least collusion against him. Many of their allegations - like hair-flicking - sounded ludicrous and were not believed by a jury. Nicola Sturgeon may not know who they were, but just about everyone in the SNP appears to.

Has it damaged the independence cause? Well it hasn't done it any good. But perhaps it is devolution that comes out worst. The Holyrood committee was demonstrably weak and given the run around by an overbearing government machine backed by the Crown Office. Evidence was withheld without justification. The dual role of the Lord Advocate as head of the prosecution service and a minister in cabinet is under question.

Worst of all, perhaps, the Scottish Government has been shown to be grossly incompetent. Catastrophic errors have been admitted, lives ruined, public money lost. And still no one has resigned.