Former diplomat’s blog posts on Salmond case constitute contempt of court

Craig Murray, a former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, has written extensively in defence of Mr Salmond, who was acquitted of various sexual offence charges in March 2020.

In a 42-page judgment handed down yesterday, Lady Dorrian said four articles published on Mr Murray’s blog and one of his tweets “must be considered to constitute contempt of court” because it was “capable of identifying four different complainers”.

The blog posts were published on the 11th, 18th and 19th of March 2020 and the 3rd of April 2020, and the tweet was published on the 2nd of April 2020.

A number of other articles and tweets were either found to not constitute contempt or were not considered because the Crown had not included them in the petition.

Mr Murray submitted two affidavits to the court, which Lady Dorrian said “are full of material which is irrelevant, hearsay, states gossip as fact, and in some instances even potentially defamatory”.

She added that parts of his affidavits suggested “a failure to understand the rationale and purpose behind anonymity for complainers in sexual offence cases”.

A further hearing will be held on 7 May 2021 to consider “the consequences of this decision”. The maximum penalty for contempt of court, as set out in the Contempt of Court Act 1981, is two years’ imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine.