Bill Walker must do the right thing for once

“Violent, domineering, controlling and relentless” thug had terrorised his partners over 28 years.

Twenty years ago Edinburgh Council’s bold campaign about domestic violence was copied all over the world.

The Zero Tolerance campaign didn’t say anything new but it did something revolutionary. It contrasted shocking statistics with tranquil pictures of well-dressed women and children in elegant homes. The billboard images questioned every stereotype about domestic violence.

Boorish, working class, alcoholic or aggressive men are not the only men who hit wives, partners and children. Controlling, abusive men are found in every class, with every personality type.

Bill Walker is living proof. Charming and plausible, the SNP MSP for Dunfermline has been found guilty of 23 assaults and one breach of the peace after evidence given by his former wives and stepdaughter. Brave women who should be applauded for vercoming the fear of not being believed and the unjust stigma of “having themselves to blame”.

Walker should have accepted the game was up when his ex-wives decided to testify together. Instead the businessman tried to brazen it out, bad-mouthing his womenfolk in the naive belief that position, status and his current wife’s loyalty would save him.

Instead the court heard how a “violent, domineering, controlling and relentless” thug had terrorised his partners over 28 years beating, bullying, humiliating and sexually assaulting them.

Yet he’s still the Independent MSP for Dunfermline.

So a few big questions.

A sheriff court can’t hand down a sentence of more than 12 months, and that’s the cut-off point for automatically chucking out errant MSPs.

So who decided not to send Walker’s case to a higher court with a jury and longer sentences? The Crown Office may have thought the case wouldn’t succeed before a jury. If that’s true, then shame on us all.

Either way, Bill Walker can do the first decent thing for decades and leave his £57,521-a-year post. If he doesn’t, removing him must be the first job for MSPs when Parliament reconvenes.

The other question is who in the SNP knew?

In 2008 Rob Armstrong visited Nicola Sturgeon’s office with evidence that Walker his ex-brother in law was an abusive bully, unfit to be an SNP councillor. The information he gave to an assistant was never acted on.

Of course, it’s always easy to be wise in hindsight. But in cases of child, sexual and domestic abuse, how often does the same weary pattern of disbelief have to emerge before we finally tip the balance in favour of victims?

Last week it was revealed that Cardinal Keith O’Brien blocked an inquiry into sex abuse in the Catholic Church in Scotland. This is what happens when “unsavoury allegations” are automatically swept under the carpet to keep the reputation of “great men” intact.

Back in the real world Scottish Women’s Aid faces budget cuts that mean fewer refuge places for battered women. Their manager Lily Greenan says; “I hope this case proves it doesn’t matter how long you’ve lived with violence, how long ago it happened or how charming or high status the man. The justice system should take it seriously and this time it has. Bill Walker’s ex-wives deserve medals.”

And the people of Dunfermline deserve to get shot of Bully Bill.