Salmond blogger loses legal challenge over jail sentence

Craig Murray was found to have defied an order preventing the identification of complainers in the Alex Salmond case

A former diplomat has lost a legal challenge against a jail sentence imposed on him over blogs he wrote about the trial of Alex Salmond.

Craig Murray posted a series of articles online about the former first minister's high court case in 2020.

He was jailed for eight months for contempt of court after prosecutors raised concerns that complainers could be identified by his writing.

The 63-year-old served four months in prison before being granted parole.

Murray, a former ambassador to Uzbekistan, wanted the finding of contempt and the jail sentence quashed.

He claimed that the prison term was excessive and that he had been willing to pay a fine.

However, five judges at the Court of Appeal in Edinburgh have now thrown out his challenge.

Scotland's senior judge, the Lord Justice General Lord Carloway, said: "The petitioner (Murray) is an intelligent person whose actions were deliberate and calculated.

"They clearly showed contempt for the court's order and for the rule of law. They created serious risks for the complainers' mental and physical health."

Alex Salmond was acquitted of all 13 sexual assault charges he faced

The judge said that taking into account Murray's apparent lack of remorse, "the court is unable to conclude that a sentence other than one of imprisonment would have been appropriate".

Lord Carloway said the contempt committed by Murray was of "very great gravity". He added: "The petitioner deliberately set out to publish information likely to lead to the identification of the complainers and did so.

"The revelation of the identities of the complainers would be likely to result in considerable abuse and harassment (particularly on social media) against them. There was a real danger that they would be physically harmed."

Jigsaw identification

Murray, a former rector at Dundee University, had attended two days of the former first minister's High Court trial last March over sexual assault allegations, and wrote a series of blogs about it.

Trial judge Lady Dorrian had made an order during the trial to prohibit the identity of the women involved - or any information which could lead to them being identified - from being disclosed.

During the virtual sentencing, Lady Dorian said Murray knew there were court orders giving the women anonymity and he was "relishing" the potential disclosure of their identities.

She said Murray deliberately risked jigsaw identification and that revealing complainers' identities was "abhorrent".

Murray's offending blog posts and tweets were written over a period of a month.

They remained up, and unredacted, despite the blogger being told they could potentially lead to the identification of women who had made complaints about Mr Salmond, who was eventually acquitted of all 13 sexual assault charges.