NICOLA Sturgeon’s private secretary held two "secret meetings" with a civil servant who complained about Alex Salmond in November 2017, six months before the First Minister says she became aware of the allegations made against her predecessor. 

According to documents released by the Holyrood committee investigating the botched probe into allegations of sexual harassment made against the former First Minster, John Somers met the woman soon after she indicated she may have allegations to make.

Sturgeon has previously said she was first made aware of complaints against her predecessor when he told her in a meeting at her home on 2 April 2018.

Though it has since emerged she was informed during a meeting with Salmond's former chief of staff Geoff Aberdein on March 29, the SNP leader recently told MSPs that she had forgotten that the meeting had taken place.

The First Minister ultimately signed off on the Scottish Government’s harassment policy in December 2017. The new policy allowed civil servants to make retrospective complaints against former ministers. 

The two complainants filed formal complaints against Salmond in January 2018.

The Scottish Government upheld those complaints in the August of that year. 

Salmond then took the government to court, where he had the findings set aside in a judicial review that ultimately cost the taxpayer more than half a million pounds. 

The Scottish Government were forced to concede the case, as the investigating officer had previously counselled the complainers, meaning the subsequent investigation was tainted by bias.

Salmond was awarded costs of £512,000. The government also spent around £100,000 on legal fees.

The case collapsed shortly before the former First Minister was due to call Somers to give evidence. 

In a letter sent last week, the committee asked David McKie from Levy & McRae why his client wanted to question the Private Secretary in court. 

He replied: “The answer to that question is that in the course of the Commission, documents appeared from the Scottish Government which had previously not been produced, despite a Court ordering that they be so. 

“Some of those documents confirmed that one of the complainers had met with the Private Secretary to the First Minister on two occasions in November 2017. 

“On the second occasion, another individual was also present. The identity of the second individual is not known to us. 

“It was Senior Counsel’s intention to ask that question of the Chief of Staff, Liz Lloyd and the Private Secretary, John Somers, when those witnesses came before the Commission.”

The lawyer also reacted angrily to Deputy First Minister John Swinney’s desire to share the report of the civil service investigation, which upheld those complaints, with MSPs.  

McKie said the documents should have been destroyed after last year’s court case, that they were unlawful and were not relevant to the committee’s inquiry. 

“Despite that, the Scottish Government seems determined to spend even more public money in a continued effort to publicise those documents and to revisit the substance of the complaints,” he said.

McKie added: "The clear objective of the Scottish Government is to tarnish the reputation of our client and to seek to distract the Committee from the core remit of investigating the Scottish Government and First Minister.”

Murdo Fraser, the Scottish Tory MSP who sits on the committee, said revelations were explosive.

He said: “This is an absolutely extraordinary attack from Mr Salmond’s lawyers on the government’s failure to disclose documents and their secretive approach to this inquiry.

“We’ve now heard of even more information that the SNP Government tried to keep hidden. They apparently didn’t reveal a key document that should have been disclosed.

“And it’s the first time we’ve heard of secret meetings between Nicola Sturgeon’s trusted civil servant and private secretary, John Somers, and one of the people who reported Alex Salmond’s alleged behaviour to the government.

“The government must come clean if Nicola Sturgeon’s private secretary, John Somers, knew of these complaints in November 2017and tell us about the other official who was in the second meeting.

“These explosive letters have uncovered yet more secret meetings and information that the SNP Government tried to cover up. It seems they will stop at nothing to keep their mistakes quiet.”

Shortly after he won the civil case, Salmond was charged with sexual assault, attempted rape and indecent exposure at the High Court in Edinburgh. He was cleared of all charges in March 2020.