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Mr Salmond denies the entire allegations towards him
Alex Salmond’s defence lawyer has advised a jury that the previous first minister had not all the time behaved effectively – however didn’t sexually assault anybody.
Gordon Jackson QC was talking as he made his closing speech to Mr Salmond’s trial on the Excessive Courtroom in Edinburgh.
He advised the court docket that the allegations towards his consumer “do not make sense” when examined carefully.
Mr Salmond has pled not responsible to 13 costs of sexual assault towards 9 girls over a six-year interval.
The jury of 9 girls and 6 males is anticipated to be despatched out to think about its verdict afterward Friday.
Prosecutor Alex Prentice QC claimed on Thursday that Mr Salmond was a “sexual predator” who had used his place and energy to “fulfill his sexual needs with impunity”.
However Mr Jackson stated the Crown had not confirmed that the previous SNP chief was responsible of any felony offences through the two-week trial, and urged the jury to acquit him.
He stated: “If in some methods the previous first minister had been a greater man, I would not be right here, you would not be right here, none of us can be right here.
“I am not right here to recommend he all the time behaved effectively or could not have been a greater man on events. That might be a waste of my time.
“However I am in a court docket of legislation and I am dealing not with whether or not he might have been a greater man, as a result of he actually might have been higher.
“I am coping with whether or not or not it was established he was responsible of great, generally very critical, felony costs.”
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Mr Jackson went on to say there was a “sample” within the case the place “one thing that was thought nothing of on the time” later change into a felony cost on the Excessive Courtroom.
He advised the jury that it required a “very, very excessive normal of proof” to seek out Mr Salmond responsible.
And he stated allegations towards his consumer “do not make sense and are by no means going to make sense” when they’re examined carefully.
Mr Jackson stated the allegations all got here from the “political bubble with no actual impartial assist of any type”, including: “It smells.”
He went on to say that the rule of legislation ought to imply that nobody is above the legislation – even when they’re a former first minister.
However he added: “Equally it implies that no individual is under the legislation. Each individual is entitled to the identical safety that the legislation provides.
“I do not care when you like him or not – he was the Marmite man I suppose. However he’s entitled to the legislation’s safety, and to not be convicted of something until there’s proof.
“This has gone far sufficient and gone on lengthy sufficient. Too lengthy perhaps. It is time, I say to you fairly bluntly, to carry it to an finish.”
Mr Salmond has beforehand described the allegations as being “deliberate fabrications for a political function” or “exaggerations” and says he’s harmless of the entire costs towards him.
He has entered not responsible pleas to all 13 of the costs which he nonetheless faces, which embody one cost of tried rape, one among sexual assault with intent to rape, 9 sexual assaults and two indecent assaults.
He has already been acquitted of an additional sexual assault cost towards a 10th girl after the Crown dropped the allegation through the trial.
What has the trial heard to this point?