Jordan Linden jailed for 18 months after sexual offences conviction
Jordan Linden was jailed for 18 months after a Falkirk sheriff court conviction for sexual offences against young men and teenagers as young as 14. The former SNP council leader was also placed on the sex offender register after a case that covered conduct from 2011 to 2021.
He was convicted in March of five sexual assaults and of directing unwanted sexual communications towards seven teenagers. One complaint came from a witness who said Linden climbed into his bunk at a youth hostel in Barcelona and started caressing him and trying to kiss his neck.
Falkirk sheriff court sentence
The court heard that one offence involved Linden sexually assaulting two victims at a house party in Dundee after a Pride march in 2019. Linden denied all the offences before the court, but the guilty verdicts led to the 18-month prison sentence.
The scale of the case lay not only in the number of offences, but in the age of the youngest teenager named in the communications: 14. The messages included photos of Linden in a bath and shots of his genitalia, and the conduct spanned a decade before ending in 2021.
North Lanarkshire council fallout
Linden stood down as leader of North Lanarkshire council in 2022 after the allegations emerged. He had also chaired the Scottish Youth Parliament, a role that formed part of the testimony heard around the case.
A witness told the court, “Everywhere I went for help in the SNP I was ignored or it was downplayed,” after saying he reported Linden’s behaviour to police in 2023 because he did not feel confident that complaints he had made to the SNP would be dealt with properly. That evidence put the party’s handling of the complaints directly into view.
John Swinney apology
After the conviction, John Swinney personally apologised: “For anybody who has suffered as a consequence of the behaviour of Jordan Linden, I’m very, very sorry for what they have experienced,” he said. Swinney also ordered an independent review of the SNP’s complaints processes.
DCI Diane Barr said, “This was a protracted investigation which involved speaking with a broad range of people, many of whom regarded Linden as being in a position of trust.” She added, “He abused this position to befriend young males who were seeking his support and the opportunity to learn from his work, however his conduct toward them was far from professional.”
Barr also thanked the victims who came forward, saying, “I’d like to thank the victims who came forward to report their experiences to police. Their testimony and support ensured that we were able to bring Linden before the courts.” With Linden now jailed and on the sex offender register, the remaining consequence inside the case is the review Swinney has ordered into how the SNP handled complaints about him.
