Ex-councillor Jordan Linden jailed 18 months for sex assaults

Jordan Linden, a former leader of North Lanarkshire Council and chair of the Scottish Youth Parliament, was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Friday at Falkirk Sheriff Court after being convicted of sexually assaulting five young men and sending unwanted sexual communications to seven teenagers, the youngest aged 14.

The 30-year-old from Bellshill faced a seven-day trial in March, where a jury deliberated for less than four hours before finding him guilty on 10 charges spanning a decade from 2011 to 2021. These included five counts of sexual assault, three of engaging in conduct causing fear or alarm, and sexual communications involving explicit images, such as photographs of Linden in a bath and of his genitalia. He was acquitted of a sixth sexual assault charge and five others related to stalking and sexual communication. Sheriff Christopher Shead also placed Linden on the sex offenders register. Linden had denied the allegations, claiming incidents either did not occur or were consensual.

The court heard accounts from victims, many of whom were teenagers or young men who encountered Linden through his roles in the Scottish Youth Parliament, the SNP's youth wing Young Scots...