This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The Scottish government has paid Alex Salmond more than £512,000 to cover his legal costs after he won a bitterly contested court battle over its sexual misconduct investigation.

The government admitted in court it had botched its internal inquiry into claims of inappropriate conduct against Salmond while he was first minister, after he launched legal proceedings in 2018.

Government lawyers said a senior human resources official overseeing the investigation into whether Salmond had broken its harassment rules had also spoken to the two complainants before the investigation began, making the investigation unlawful and “tainted by apparent bias”.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Scottish government said: “We can confirm that final settlement of £512,250 has been made to Mr Salmond for legal costs arising from his petition for judicial review.”

The Scottish government has already said its own spending on external legal fees amounted to £118,523, taking its total legal bill to £630,773, excluding all its internal costs.

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That legal case is not directly related to the decision this year to prosecute Salmond on 14 alleged offences including two of attempted rape, nine of sexual assault, two of indecent assault and one of breach of the peace.

Salmond has denied all the charges, with the case expected to be heard at the high court in Edinburgh in January 2020.

However, the Police Scotland investigation was triggered by the decision by Leslie Evans, the permanent secretary at the Scottish government, to send the results of its internal inquiry to the police.

The Scottish parliament has launched a separate special investigation into the decisions taken by Evans and other officials, as well as the role played by Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister, during the internal inquiry.

Sturgeon has admitted to meeting and talking to Salmond about the internal inquiry five times, including private meetings with him at her home which were set up by her chief of staff, Liz Lloyd.

Donald Cameron, a Scottish Conservative MSP who sits on the Holyrood committee, said it was outrageous so much money had been spent by the government on the case. “This scandal cannot simply be swept under the carpet, and parliament must get to the bottom of exactly what happened,” he said.