A councillor in North Lanarkshire has hit out at the party and accused them of not addressing his complaints about disgraced ex-leader Jordan Linden.
Cammie McManus has said he has been left with no option but to go to the police.
He told the Sunday Mail: “The SNP has put my mental health at stake. I’ve been put on anti-depressants due to the situation.
“I’ve suffered continuous panic attacks because I don’t know what the next email or phone call is going to be about. All they want is to protect a sex pest rather than do the right thing.”
The toxic row over Linden has engulfed the party in North Lanarkshire.
READ MORE: Humza Yousaf urged to intervene in 'toxic' SNP sex-pest scandal
Last week, the council’s SNP group expelled two councillors and suspended five others who complained about a failure to investigate their former leader.
Linden quit his £45,000 post within weeks of the SNP winning control of the council last year after multiple sexual misconduct claims were levelled against him.
He accepted his behaviour at a party in 2019 caused a teenage boy “a sense of discomfort which I entirely regret”.
His exit led to a change of control at the council, with Labour returning to power.
He quit as a councillor for Bellshill in March after more claims against him, which he denied.
The scandal led to calls for the SNP opposition’s new leader, Tracy Carragher, to be suspended for allegedly failing to investigate a complaint against Linden and “abuse of power”.
However, the councillors who complained about her and Linden suffered instead.
Cllr Carragher works part-time for both the SNP’s influential business convener Kirsten Oswald MP and for local MSP Fulton MacGregor.
Cllrs Paul Di Mascio and David Crichton were expelled from the SNP group at a disciplinary hearing on Tuesday night, while Beth Baudo, Gerry Brennan, Greg Lennon, Barry McCluskey were suspended for six months.
Cllr McManus was awaiting a suspension sanction.
All have now resigned from the SNP group or indicated they will do so.
READ MORE: SNP councillors who complained about sex pest 'punished by party'
Speaking to the paper, Cllr McManus said he had endured years of harassment by Linden which started in 2016 when they were both on an SNP Youth trip to Barcelona.
He said Linden climbed into his bed, groped and tried to kiss him.
He said: “Group leader Tracey Carragher is ignoring the sexual allegations about Jordan Linden. She accused one councillor of speaking aggressively to her at a meeting and if you look at other complaints about two others they are word for word similar.
“They’re claiming we’ve brought the party into disrepute but why it is us who have brought the party into disrepute when there are people in the party who are openly protecting a sex pest? It’s the continued protection of their friend rather than doing the right thing.”
The SNP said: “The allegations relate to an individual who is no longer an SNP member. The group leader disputes any suggestion she ignored an allegation by an individual.
"The matter has been raised with the party and will be subject to investigation.
"If there is any allegation of a criminal nature, then that must be made to the police rather than the party.”
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