The QC who acted for former Scotland first minister Alex Salmond during his trial has announced his intention to resign as Dean of the Faculty of Advocates.
Gordon Jackson referred himself to the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission after he was filmed apparently discussing Mr Salmond’s case on a train before the former first minister was acquitted of all charges in his trial.
In a statement, Mr Jackson said: “I have intimated my decision to resign as Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, with effect from 30 June, at the latest.
“It would not, however, be appropriate for me to remain as Dean at a time when the faculty was considering disciplinary proceedings regarding my conduct.
“Accordingly, if, before that date, the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission remits the recent complaint for consideration by the faculty’s complaints committee, I will stand down as Dean immediately. I do not intend to make any further comment.”
Mr Salmond was acquitted of attempted rape and a series of sexual assaults, including one with intent to rape, following an 11-day trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.
The jury returned not guilty verdicts on 12 charges and returned a not proven verdict on a charge of sexual assault with intent to rape.
Rape Crisis Scotland has called for a full investigation of the video footage.
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 hereComments are closed on this article