A victim of the former SNP equalities officer Cameron Downing has revealed the party ignored her warnings he was dangerous after he had been charged in connection with a series of sexual assaults.

The woman, who was sexually assaulted by Downing, spoke out after the 24-year-old was jailed last month for six years after he was convicted of sexually assaulting six young adults and physically assaulting two women.

Downing attacked seven people between 2016 and 2021 and was convicted of 10 charges including sexual and physical assaults, and domestic abuse.

He was appointed as an equalities officer in the SNP London branch - despite writing on social media he wanted 'to beat up' certain groups of feminists and held two other roles in the party’s official LGBT wing, Out for Independence, after he had been arrested and charged with the assaults in 2021.

The victim said in an interview today that she found out he held these roles in the party after she read a news story in October 2022 about him making online threats.

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She told the Sunday Mail she emailed the party and Holyrood equalities committee convener MSP Karen Adam, who knew Downing, to inform them of the High Court proceedings against him.

However, no action was taken at the time and he remained in the roles.

“I am contacting you in reference to an equalities officer of the London branch," she said in correspondence shared with the Sunday Mail.

“Cameron is involved in a High Court case that involves more than five individuals that he has sexually harassed or assaulted. The case has been ongoing for over a year. It is a disservice to both his victims and the LGBTQ+ community to allow him to continue his position."

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She added: “Cameron’s actions do not make him a suitable individual to represent anyone, especially a minority group that already faces enough criticism and hardship.”

The Sunday Mail reported that the SNP’s Ian McCann, corporate governance and compliance manager, responded and asked “if – to your knowledge – any of the circumstances around the allegations involved SNP events or SNP members?”

The woman said: “When I contacted them, it seemed they were more interested in finding out, ‘Was it SNP adjacent? Did it happen in the SNP?’.

“There didn’t appear to be any concern about me or potentially others he may have harmed. I emailed Karen Adam as I knew she had been in pictures with him.

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“She said there wasn’t really anything she could do. The same with my local MSP.

“The SNP gave him these positions after he’d been arrested, that’s really disturbing. He was working with LGBT people who are vulnerable after committing sex attacks."

The woman said Downing would regularly talk about being friends with Nicola Sturgeon and once introduced her to the former first minister at a vigil in Edinburgh for victims of the Pulse nightclub mass shooting in Florida in 2016.

“Cameron was quite political and would show off all these pictures of him and her," she said.

“When the nightclub shooting happened, I went to a vigil with Cameron in St Andrew’s Square. Nicola Sturgeon was there and I met her with Cameron.

“She knew who he was. She was on a first name basis with him because he went SNP events.”

SNP MSP Fergus Ewing, who previously called for an investigation into the Downing affair, said he was furious and the party’s senior management now need to be removed.

“The leadership publicly boast about there being no place for sexism or misogyny in the party and that such behaviour will immediately lead to expulsion," he said.

“At the same time, they fail to act when this very behaviour is brought to their attention.

“This is rank hypocrisy. Frankly, there needs to be a clear-out of the whole senior management at HQ if the party is to have any prospect of recovery.”

Former SNP Joanna Cherry also called for the party to take action.

Writing on X/Twitter this morning she said: "A young woman who was subjected to a horrific sexual assault by an SNP office bearer tells how her complaints to the party were ignored. In March 2020 my calls for an independent inquiry into the party’s complaints system were also ignored. Action is required."

Downing was found guilty of 10 charges of assault, sexual assault and domestic abuse against four women and two men last month at Edinburgh High Court and jailed for six years.

The most serious charges related to a man he blackmailed to be in a relationship with him, threatening that if he didn’t keep sleeping with him, he would falsely accuse him of rape.

Over an 18-month period, Downing also physically and sexually assaulted the man, took over his social media accounts and changed his passwords.

Sentencing Downing last month, Judge Alison Stirling said he had “a high likelihood of causing serious harm, both sexual and violent, as well as controlling behaviour”.

An SNP spokeswoman said: “We are not aware of any complaints ever being made about Mr Downing by SNP members about their contact with him.

"Neither are we aware of Out for Independence having had issues with Mr Downing’s behaviour.

"Mr Downing was removed from SNP membership in January 2023 as soon as we became aware of legal action being taken against him.”

In her written sentencing statement Judge Stirling said: In terms of the risk assessments specific to sexual offending, you scored in areas including hostility towards women, lack of concern for others, sexual preoccupation and deviant sexual preference. 

"You have been assessed as being at a high risk of sexual reoffending.  You have relationship deficits, and have been manipulative as well as showing a callous disregard within your friendship groups.  Your offences are likely to have caused significant psychological and physical harm to all your victims, and their psychological recovery from your actions could be prolonged. 

"You present with a high likelihood of causing serious harm, both sexual and violent, as well as controlling behaviour within the context of intimate relationships.  The likelihood of reoffending is not exclusive to men you are in an intimate relationship with, but includes adult women known to you.  You have the capacity to cause physical and sexual harm as well as emotional and psychological distress.  Your risk is not currently manageable in the community." 

She jailed Downing for six years and put him under an addtional three years of supervision on his reason from prison.

"During that period you will be subject to the conditions of a licence set by the Scottish Ministers and any breach of the conditions could see you liable to be returned to prison to serve the remainder of the sentence.  So the sentence is an extended sentence of nine years of which the custodial part is six years and the extension part is three years," she said.

"Your name has already been intimated to the Scottish Ministers for addition to the list of persons deemed unsuitable to work with vulnerable groups."