ALEX Cole-Hamilton has said the inquiry into the Scottish Government's handling of Alex Salmond harrassment complaints was one of his "darkest periods" as an MSP.
The LibDem said being in the Holyrood committee was "grim" work.
MSPs voted 5-4, along party lines, that the First Minister misled Parliament over “an inaccurate account” of her actions.
She has denied doing so and described the committee’s conclusion, which was leaked, as “partisan”. The finding was disputed by the four SNP members of the committee.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon hits out after leak of Alex Salmond inquiry report
Speaking to Holyrood's Politically Speaking podcast, Cole-Hamilton denied leaking the conclusion and two female complainers' evidence to a Sunday newspaper.
The Holyrood committee's 192-page report listed a series of flaws in the government's handling of the complaints in three areas – over the drawing up of the procedure, its implementation and its response to the judicial review by Salmond. These were unanimously agreed by the committee's members.
It was reported earlier this month that the two women whose complaints about Salmond sparked the Scottish Government’s unlawful investigation told MSPs in a private session of a “toxic culture” while Salmond was First Minister and Sturgeon his deputy.
The leak of the women's evidence, given in a private committee session, was met with anger and prompted calls for a probe into the leaks.
Cole-Hamilton said: “Clearly there was a catastrophic leak. I’m not talking about the leak of the vote, although that was bad form.
“There was a betrayal of trust in the complainers who had come to speak to us. They didn’t have to come to our committee – I’m very glad they did. I had hoped a protection of their confidentiality was a red line that others wouldn’t cross.”
READ MORE: Alex Salmond to take Scottish Government to court over top official's conduct
He continued: "[Being part of the committee has] been one of the darkest periods of my time as an MSP. It sucks the oxygen away from everything else. Had I known what I know now, I would have asked someone else to be assigned. It’s been grim, frankly. Grim.
“You’re a young MSP, you’re given a high-profile role on a high-profile inquiry, and you hope for the best.
“But I was disappointed at every turn. I’ve seen the worst of government, and parliament and party politics, drawing this out unnecessarily over two years to the cost only of the complainers, who must have hated every single minute of this.”
Cole-Hamilton told the podcast the investigation should have been carried out by a judge-led inquiry.
But he said the committee's work had uncovered what he called “a culture of demeaning people, diminishing people, making them feel rubbish and all because of power” within the Scottish Government.
He added: “There was a culture of silence. There was an anxiety about upsetting the political project of the day, which at the time was the independence referendum.”
He concluded: “This is a psychodrama. Scotland is exhausted. We’ve just been through Brexit, we’re still in a global pandemic. We need a period of calm and stability where the psychodrama of Salmond and Sturgeon and all the bit part players around them can be put to bed. I think people want to move on.”
Earlier today it emerged the police are “assessing” a leak of the Scottish Government’s probe into harassment allegations against Alex Salmond following a formal complaint made by the former first minister to the force.
READ MORE: Police assess formal complaint made by Alex Salmond over harassment probe leak
James Hamilton, a former director of public prosecutions in the Irish Republic and the independent adviser on the ministerial code, said the issue of an alleged leak was outside his remit but said that "if Mr Salmond has evidence to support this complaint he should refer the matter to the police."
He wrote: "Mr Salmond has asked for an investigation into whether an alleged criminal leak of part of the contents of the Permanent Secretary’s Decision report to the Daily Record was sourced from the First Minister’s Office.
"It is no part of my function and I have no power to investigate criminal offences. If Mr Salmond has evidence to support this complaint he should refer the matter to the police."
It is now understood the former first minister's team made a formal complaint to the police at the weekend.
A previous report by the Information Commissioner's Office cleared the Scottish Government.
It said they had “sympathy” with the former first minister’s belief that the leak came from an employee of the Scottish Government, however they could find “no evidence that a third party or an employee from the Scottish Government unlawfully obtained or disclosed personal data relating to Mr Alex Salmond.”
Today a source close to the former first minister told The National: "Alex was very dissatisfied at the Commissioner’s findings and feels that a full police inquiry is needed that must involve people inside and outside of the Government. He has now done what James Hamilton recommended."
A Police Scotland spokeswoman said last night: "We have a received a complaint regarding the potential unlawful disclosure of information and this is being assessed."
Details of the investigation into the complaints from two female civil servants against Salmond were published in the Daily Record in August 2018 sending shockwaves across Scotland.
Last week, just days before he launched the Alba Party, the former first minister referred to both the Hamilton and a Holyrood committee report into the handling of the investigation in a statement he released and said he would be making a complaint to the police about the matter.
"The report of Mr James Hamilton makes clear that the question of the leak of the story of the original complaints in August 2018 was not part of his remit but should instead be referred to the Police.
"The parliamentary committee report was fully condemnatory of that same leak noting the extreme level of damage to all concerned. I agree.
"I will accordingly now make that complaint to the police and allow them to discover who within the Scottish Government was responsible for passing these details to the Daily Record newspaper. I have every confidence that Police Scotland will pursue that matter with rigour."
The ICO’s investigation identified 23 members of staff who had knowledge of the investigation.
In his statement last Wednesday Salmond also announced his intention to pursue a separate legal action against the Scottish Government over the conduct of the Permanent Secretary Leslie Evans.
READ MORE: Police boss warned Government not to go public with Alex Salmond investigation
After Salmond’s initial statement, a Scottish Government spokesman said: "For the avoidance of doubt, the Scottish Government is clear that both an Information Commissioner's Office investigation and an internal leak inquiry found no evidence to support Mr Salmond's claims that there was any leak from the Scottish government about the complaints made against him."
During his evidence session to the Holyrood harassment inquiry, the former first minister suggested that details of the probe into two complaints had been shared with the paper by someone in Nicola Sturgeon’s office.
He told MSPs that the Scottish Government had initially wanted to put out a press statement revealing the complaints and the findings of the investigation on August 23, 2018.
However, he and his lawyers said they would launch an interdict in a bid to stop the sending of the media release. That led to the Government revising plans to alert the press.
But hours later the Daily Record contacted the former first minister to say they had knowledge of the complaints.
The former first minister then launched a successful legal challenge against the Scottish Government over its investigation with the Court of Session finding the probe was unlawful and "tainted by apparent bias".
WATCH: Nicola Sturgeon appears to have veiled dig at Alex Salmond in SNP speech
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