- The Endless Trial - A superb take-down of Kirsty Wark's recent doc on Alex Salmond Archived Message
Posted by spike
on August 19, 2020, 9:54 pm
|
A little late I guess, but well worth your time. h/t John Hilley via twitter - https://wingsoverscotland.com/the-endless-trial/ I'd advise going straight to the link, but to whet your appetite... Wings Over Scotland The endless trial Posted on August 17, 2020 by Rev. Stuart Campbell The last words spoken in Kirsty Wark’s documentary “The Trial Of Alex Salmond”, which just aired on BBC Scotland, are spoken by an unnamed actress letting rip with the full BAFTA range of quivering emotions as she reads out the words of a completely anonymous woman (we don’t even get to know her trial pseudonym letter) who last year falsely accused Alex Salmond of sexually assaulting her. “What you’re saying is a man can try to kiss a woman, or he can say completely inappropriate things to her, when he’s 30 years older than her and he’s the First Minister of Scotland. I’m worried about what this says more widely to other women, or just to us as a society. I mean, where does this leave us?” Now, since the court found that neither of those things actually happened, the logical answer in that person’s case ought surely to be “facing prosecution for perjury”. But readers will be astonished to learn that that isn’t where the show went. Because it’s important to remember that the jury of eight women and five men found that all of Alex Salmond’s accusers were lying. All of the accusers said, clearly and specifically, that Salmond had sexually assaulted them, but the jury concluded that he didn’t sexually assault a single one of them. In other words, the jury decided that every single one of the accusers wasn’t telling the truth. Some specifics can be debated but there’s no wiggle room on that. They decided that the things the accusers claimed didn’t happen. Had they happened they would indisputably have been crimes (otherwise they couldn’t have been charges), but the jury’s view on hearing all the evidence the Crown could assemble – in a vast nationwide trawl encompassing hundreds of police interviews of people who’d made no complaints whatsoever – was that they hadn’t happened. They didn’t hand down verdicts of “Probably guilty, but we can’t be 100% certain so we’re letting him off”. Nor did they hand down verdicts of “Not technically guilty of a crime as such, but definitely a creepy pervert who should be shunned by society”. Because they were at no point asked to, and at no point did, make any judgement or comment on Salmond’s character. What they were asked to do was determine his guilt or innocence, and on that they were unequivocal. He walked from court an innocent man, unambiguously acquitted on every single charge, and has maintained a dignified silence since. The prosecutor accepted the verdict and has instigated no appeal. The matter is concluded. The only things that should “say to us as a society” are that (1) anyone accused of a crime should have a fair trial and be regarded as innocent if found to be so by the court rather than being subjected to endless smears and innuendo that they’re actually guilty forever afterwards, and that (2) victims of actual sexual assault shouldn’t be dissuaded from seeking justice just because some rare false claims were found to be false – the lies of Salmond’s accusers should not be held against genuine victims. But you’d never know that if you’d just woken up from a coma and watched Wark’s show. Had you somehow missed the whole story until tonight, you’d come away with the impression that Salmond was definitely guilty and that a grotesque miscarriage of justice had taken place and that Salmond – a man found completely innocent of any crime – had nevertheless somehow had his reputation ruined beyond all repair. cont at link w/ videos etc... https://wingsoverscotland.com/the-endless-trial/ |
| Message Thread:
|