Ex-SNP council leader Jordan Linden found guilty of sexual assaults

Jordan Linden <i>(Image: North Lanarkshire Council)</i>
Jordan Linden (Image: North Lanarkshire Council)
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A former SNP councillor has been found guilty of 10 charges including sexually assaulting three men.

Jordan Linden, who was arrested and charged in connection with alleged sex offences in 2024, was on trial at Falkirk Sheriff Court on Thursday.

Linden previously told reporters he did not accept the allegations which had been made against him and denied 15 charges, including sexual assault, causing fear and alarm and indecent communication towards 12 males aged 14 to 23.

He told the court that they either did not take place, or were consensual.

However, a jury returned guilty verdicts on 10 of the charges. He was cleared of five charges of sharing a sexual image.

He claimed that images he sent to others while in bed or a bath were not meant sexually.

The evidence focused on his time on the Scottish Youth Parliament, in which Linden was an elected member between 2011 and early 2016.

Linden admitted to the court that in a hostel in Barcelona while there for a Catalonian national day event in September 2016, he had climbed into the bunk of an 18-year-old member of Young Scots for Independence – the SNP’s youth wing.

Jordan Linden, while a member of the Scottish Youth Parliament in 2015

He said the teenager had not been asleep, but he and others in the dormitory had been awake chatting. He said he had only “given a cuddle” to the teenager before going back to his bunk and going to sleep.

He further admitted to following another 18-year-old into the bathroom of a flat where a party was taking place after a Pride march in Dundee in 2019 and locking the door.

The former politician said he had thought the man was interested in him.

Linden resigned as leader of North Lanarkshire Council after reports of alleged sexual harassment emerged, leading to the collapse of the SNP administration in the area.

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