Ex-council leader 'cornered teen in hotel room' when he was youth parliament chairman, court hears

An alleged abuse victim told a jury that when he was the Scottish Youth Parliament’s youngest member, he was cornered in a hotel room by the youth parliament’s chairman.

He said he thought Jordan Linden – described to jurors earlier as someone with “a lot of power in the SNP” – was interested in him in a sexual way, which was not reciprocated.

The man, now 25, said he was a “skinny” 14-year-old when Linden, “heavy set, six foot three or four”, and five years older than him, came into his room at a hotel in Renfrewshire where members of the youth parliament were staying during a parliamentary session.

He said: “I think we were going to chat before whatever I was getting ready for – an evening function.

“He started adjusting and fixing my tie. He was very close to me. I think I let him.

“Then we were in the other corner of the room chatting, and I remember him standing over me. He was tickling or prodding me.

“As I was backing away, he was saying ‘you don’t like it, what’re going to do about it, what you going to do about it?’”

Prosecutor Alistair McDermid asked: “What was it that made you so uncomfortable?

The witness replied: “He was much bigger than me, standing over me, physically intimidating me, and I felt he was interested in me in a sexual way that wasn’t reciprocated.”

He said he thought Linden realised that he was uncomfortable and “really recoiling”, and left.

He said the incident occurred on or around October 24, 2016.

He said Linden also sent him suggestive messages that became “increasingly flirtatious” and pictures on Snapchat that became more and more revealing, including “almost but not quite nude” selfies in the bath.

The man told the jury that when Linden later stepped down as chairman of the Scottish Youth Parliament, on the back of an investigation, he had left in tears because of the way it was announced.

He said members were told at a Youth Parliament session in Stornoway.

He said: “Another member of the Board, Thomas Mair, went up and made a speech that it was very sad that Jordan was no longer chair and suggested that it was unfair reasons, so I walked out of the conference room.

“It was quite visible because I was sitting in the middle of the audience. I was crying.”

He said that “other people who’d had more intense experiences” of Linden had gone to the Board or staff but the feeling he got from the announcement was that they had all made it up.

He said: “I resented the suggestion that he’d had to step down unfairly.”

At Falkirk Sheriff Court, Linden, former leader of North Lanarkshire Council, faces 24 charges of sexual assault, stalking, sexual communication and statutory breach of the peace against eight boys and five young men aged between 14 and 22 over 11 years between 2011 and 2022.

Linden of Bellshill, represented by David Moggach KC, denies all the charges.

The trial, before Sheriff Christopher Shead and the jury, continues.