Former SNP council leader jailed for sexual offences against boys

[RoyalCorgi]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/may/06/jordan-linden-former-snp-council-leader-jailed-sexual-offences-young-men-boys

From the Guardian story:

Jordan Linden, once considered a rising star in the SNP, was convicted of five sexual assaults on young men after a trial at Falkirk sheriff court in March, which heard that the SNP had “downplayed or ignored” complaints about his behaviour.

The 30-year-old, who stood down as leader of North Lanarkshire council in 2022 after the allegations emerged, was also convicted of directing unwanted sexual communications towards seven teenagers, the youngest aged 14, including photos of himself in a bath and images of his genitalia.

One of the offences involved him sexually assaulting two victims at a house party in Dundee after a Pride march in 2019.

Bloody hell @JollyDenimSeal this is all awful.

This should be investigated and have media interest. Utterly appalling and corrupt behaviour. Which, being the SNP, does not surprise me in the least.

@JollyDenimSeal I crossed paths a few years ago with a woman who was a very staunch SNP supporter, perhaps a member I'm not sure. She would go to the marches but she was targeted for no reason she could think of, accused of being an infiltrator IIRC. It was very upsetting and frightening for her, understandably, and I think she stopped going to them, for a while at least. I lost touch so don't know how things panned out for her.

So you're not alone, as you know.

I also contacted the press multiple times when this was all going on. No one was interested.

Including very recently. One of the journalists who spoke out about Linden recently, I emailed them a few weeks ago and they said they would phone me - and didn't

I have tried to get this out in the public domain - because I have always been concerned who this gang might target next

It is mostly yes voters they target but not exclusively. One unionist had his address and phone numbers found and circulated
His businesses were targeted too
And unfortunately one of my main harassers is a pathological liar. They all are.

Hes also gay (which is of no issue to me) but he'll tweet lies saying you told people he was a rapist and that you're a homophobe (which I'm not). So not only do you have people harassing you. They sit pumping out nasty lies about you all day every day - so they are portrayed as the victims - while they continue to harass you. And they watch every move you make on twitter. I remember being in the gym one day and I took a photo. Three seconds later up it went on his twitter. There's a message. We are watching you. We know who you are - and it's the intimidation that breaks you. It's constant.

And what starts it is nothing. A tweet they don't like

They harassed my mum too. Every one of them was an snp member when this was going on.

They targeted one woman who was very vulnerable. They had multiple twitter accounts dedicated to her. They made one meme of her face at the end of a barrel of a gun

I also have to say that I know many ordinary snp members who are not sociopaths like this gang are - but snp HQ were alerted to this gang on multiple occasions two years before they targeted me - and did nothing

I agree wholeheartedly. I was going to vote SNP today (to keep Reform out). They just lost my (2) votes.

@JollyDenimSeal I've just read your posts. Bloody hell, I'm SO sorry that happened to you. I used to know am SNP MSP quite well (a piece of work...) & the stories he laughingly told were worrying. I should say, I was only going to hold my nose & vote SNP as my orher local option is Tory. Hobsons choice 😔

Yes. They tell people you are a unionist and that you are a fake yesser too. I had all that. They constantly spread lies about you to cover their tracks. My mum and I were campaigning in 2017 and I handed a leaflet to someone. They then started tweeting that my branch got complaints because we screamed at people in the street (we didn't).

They also tell people you are a mental case and seriously mentally unwell (to discredit you). There was one man who made twitter accounts pretending to be a social worker saying I needed sectioned

And unfortunately some people think it's funny. It's drama. It's amusing. It's their daily entertainment. When you are suffering.

They had a twitter dm chat group dedicated to me. Thats where they plan everything

Are they trying to achieve something @JollyDenimSeal or is it downright malevolence?

I get it. Dont worry. I have had to hold my nose several times too. As I said I know a lot of decent Snp members. I just got to the stage where I couldn't be a party member anymore and couldn't campaign for them either - which is a shame because I actually really enjoyed being an activist. It's just a shame that these people attached themselves to the snp and yes campaign so they could harass women (and some men).

It's labour or snp here so I get what it's like to have two choices

Second I think. They are definitely narcissistic sociopaths. Thats for sure. Most of them don't work (and that's not a criticism because I've been out of work recently). What I mean is most of them had time to be online all day every day harassing people. The first girl they targeted was a yes voter and they targeted her for being too nice to unionists. Her friend was targeted too

One other female unionist was targeted by the man who tweeted my address. He threatened her too - she called police

He tweeted that he wanted to hug her with a hammer and she was only alive as it was illegal to shoot her

They just get off on harassing people - and then saying they are victims

I got help from police on the 7th attempt - the inspector was brilliant and crime reports were raised but they use VPNs and couldn't be traced. There was an open threat on twitter to have me eating from straws for the rest of my life - and HQ didn't think that was worthy of investigating

One of the men who harassed me the most does it under his own name with his photo visible - he uses sock accounts for the worst threats. He's also incredibly stupid. So you always know it's him. He uses the same threats to different women

I have no idea why police haven't acted. Enough people have reported him

Unfortunately one of the people involved had 11k followers on twitter. So you just get drowned out. They sit on twitter all day saying they are the victim and tagging your twitter handle in so more people harass you - and you just get drowned out by them. It's very well planned and very well co ordinated and people don't speak out - because they know they'll be next if they do.

They just tell people you are a mental case who made it all up. They definitely get off on seeing women in fear. That's a huge part of what they do. The more terrified I was the harder they harassed me.

I'm single and I live alone and that's one of the biggest factors as to why I was targeted..

I got more support from unionists on twitter at that time. I was more or less shunned by the yes movement

From my own experience. I found it difficult to make a complaint. The then national secretary ignored me. HQ did too. They have a conduct committee that you don't get given contact details for - they definitely have a bullying and harassment policy from member to member - the problem is when you are just being ignored at every turn. There's nowhere else you can go apart from police. I absolutely believe that if the snp had taken me seriously from the outset - that I would not have been harassed as much as I was. It was happening in plain sight in front of people in the snp. Including councillors - they all saw it

I'll be interested to see what happens going forward

The only person that responded to me with any concern was a Labour councillor. That was pretty much it

Fucking hell @JollyDenimSeal. Looking in, there are lots of happenings that make things inside the SNP look off, not necessarily politically, but just off in general. Whilst what you describe is shocking, it is not that surprising.

I am so sorry you went through that.

@JollyDenimSeal I actually think your experience deserves it's own thread in its own right; it just goes to show how low the SNP have gone to allow this to go on. Have you tried the Sunday Post? There's a journalist there who covers a lot of the women's rights issues and she'd be a good one to highlight this sort of stuff as it's primarily threatening women.

Also re the election; I will probably vote Labour today, not that they are much better when it comes to women's rights and the grr nonsense, but there was really nobody else in the area I'd vote for to ensure SNP don't get in. My area was always traditionally Labour before the SNP got in, so I'm hoping there might be some form of a contest. It's a rock and a hard place for voting right now as so many politicians in Scotland are just out for themselves or sadly corrupt.

Thank you. It's weird. You get de sensitised to it in a way because you get so used to it. You should have seen the police inspectors face when she saw some of the tweets. I was sent away six times in total by my local police station

I don't know why the snp are so reluctant to help people. I think part of it is that they don't want to lose members - but also. They don't want to admit they have deviants associated with their party. It's easier to sweep it under the carpet

They absolutely do though. The saddest part for me is that I loved being part of the yes campaign in 2014. I met so many nice people and then you go online and it's just a complete cess pit

Hq were quick enough to cancel my membership at my request when I said I couldn't remain in the party but they couldn't help me when I was suffering

I have thousands of tweets archived - all hateful and those were the only ones I could face looking at

None of these people knew me either. We weren't friends. I had crossed paths with a few of them online but that was it

There were definitely SNP MPs and MSPs who knew what was happening to me/councillors too. It was the talk of twitter

It's all done behind a block too which sounds ridiculous. So they block you then they stalk you from behind the block then they make fake profiles to abuse you. Or they make fake ones pretending to be your friend or they send you messages saying you can call me anytime -and if I had given it. It would have been tweeted

When you are in the thick of it you are so stressed you don't know what's all going on. It's only when you look back you see how planned it all was

And hilariously. Some of the worst offenders who have harassed me and other women sit on twitter pretending to care about women's rights. They are women's rights champions and defenders (like they've not sat on twitter for the last 7 years aggressively harassing women).

Sorry for the derail

Not just ignored - they actively victimised people who raised concerns/complained.

No I haven't. I spoke to the journalist who actually helped break the story about Linden a few weeks ago and she said she would be back in touch but didn't get back to me. I will try the Sunday Post person thanks

I actually spoke to a very prominent yes voting journalist back in the day and he asked to meet me and went silent - I suspect the people who were harassing me smeared me to him. It was very important to one person that the truth about what happened to me never saw the light of day. I was sent open warnings not to go to police.

My concern is who they target next.

It's always been my concern that these people would pick on someone very vulnerable and they might try and end their life. I had to have therapy because of it. I have a ptsd diagnosis. It's other people I'm concerned about now. I don't want anyone else to go through similar

Thanks again