Former SNP council leader faces trial over sex offences against boys and young men

A former SNP council leader is set to go on trial in connection with a catalogue of sexual offences against more than a dozen teenage boys and young men.

Jordan Linden appeared in the dock at Dundee Sheriff Court and denied 25 charges spanning a period of more than a decade.

The former North Lanarkshire Council leader pled not guilty to all charges and is scheduled to face a ten-day trial before a jury at Falkirk Sheriff Court.

Linden’s counsel, Kevin Jarvis, told the court: “The jury will hear about a multitude of sexual offending.”

The 30-year-old faces six charges of sexual assault against five different victims at a number of locations including Glasgow, Bellshill, Edinburgh and Dundee. The alleged victims were 15, 17, 18, 19 and 21.

Linden is alleged to have sexually assaulted two of the complainants while they were asleep and unable to give consent, and is accused of demanding that one urinate in front of him.

He also faces several charges of communicating indecently with males aged from 14 by sending them graphic sexual material, including naked selfies.

Ten of the charges allege Linden was involved in stalking his victims, including tracking one of them using his online location and demanding he send pictures of himself from the gym.

Linden, who stood down as local authority leader in 2022, has lodged a special defence of consent in relation to four of the 25 charges he faces.

The Crown has given notice that it intends to lead evidence outwith the charges of an incident involving a sleeping 18-year-old man at a youth hostel in Barcelona in September 2016.

Prosecutors have also given notice of the intention to lead evidence of an assault on one of the named complainants at a hotel in Venice, Italy, in November 2018. Linden is said to have thrown a cup and its contents at the teenager.

Linden is alleged to have started the catalogue of offending against a 15-year-old boy on March 1, 2011, in Bellshill and at North Lanarkshire Council HQ in Motherwell.

He is alleged to have sent pictures of his penis to the boy over a four-year period and made indecent phone calls to him.

Linden is accused of stalking the same boy at a hotel in Airdrie and various council buildings across North Lanarkshire. The Crown alleged he made sexual advances.

Linden is alleged to have sexually assaulted the boy during the same period by trying to cuddle, kiss and touch him, as well as trying to tickle him and pull his belt from his waistband.

The second boy, who was 16 at the time, was allegedly sent partially naked images of Linden and asked inappropriate questions by him at locations including a London hotel.

The third boy – aged 14 – was allegedly sent graphic messages before being subjected to threatening or abusive behaviour at a Renfrewshire hotel during 2015. Linden is alleged to have entered the boy’s hotel room, forced him into a corner and intimidated him by standing over him.

Linden faces two charges relating to the fourth boy – aged 16 – including sending him partially naked images and making advances towards him.

The politician denies stalking a fifth victim – aged 15 – by making advances towards him between June 2015 and December 2016.

A sixth complainer – aged 16 – is named in three charges including allegations that Linden sent him pictures of his penis and stalked him by making sexual advances towards him. Linden is also alleged to have repeatedly stared at him in a Slaters Menswear store.

The seventh youth – who was 17 when the four alleged offences against him began in 2015 – was allegedly sent graphic images and sexually assaulted in a Premier Inn in Edinburgh. Linden is alleged to have stalked the boy and acted in a threatening way by staring at him and trying to barge into him in the Apple Store in Glasgow.

Around the same time, he is alleged to have stalked and sent indecent images to an eighth youth – aged 16 – from an address in Bellshill.

A ninth male was 18 when Linden is alleged to have started a course of conduct against him in January 2016. Between then and February 2023 he is alleged to have stalked him at the Motherwell Civic Centre and changed his online profile photograph without permission.

Linden is alleged to have sexually assaulted the tenth complainer – aged 21 – in August 2018 by carrying out a sex act upon him while he was asleep and unable to consent. He is alleged to have carried out a second sex attack upon him a month later, before stalking him and making claims that he was homosexual.

Complainer eleven was 18 when he was allegedly subjected to a sex attack in Dundee in September 2019. Linden allegedly followed him into a bathroom and locked the door to prevent him leaving, and asked him to urinate, before trying to kiss him and bite his ear.

The twelfth complainer was 19 when he alleges he was sexually assaulted by Linden repeatedly trying to pull down his trousers in Dundee in September 2019.

The final complainer was 18 in 2021 when Linden allegedly stalked him by sending him messages, tracking him online, demanding gym pictures, and phoning him.

Linden became a councillor for the Bellshill ward during the 2017 local elections.

He was elected leader of the council in May 2022 but resigned from the post a few weeks later when a newspaper published allegations against him.

He initially continued serving as a councillor but resigned from both the council and the SNP.