Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
‘FRAUD’ SOLDIER: £120K PAY TOO LOW FOR SCHOOL FEES
‘Probe failed two women’
A SENIOR soldier accused of illegally claiming £48,000 for school fees said he could not afford them despite a “lofty” salary, a hearing was told.
Maj Gen Nick Welch was made Assistant Chief of the General
Staff in 2015, on around £120,000. But he admitted in an email to a fellow officer: “Even with a lofty Major General salary I can’t afford private school fees.”
A military court has heard Maj Gen Welch “dishonestly” claimed his wife would live with him at his new London residence so he could claim £48,388 in continuity of education allowance for two of his children’s boarding.
But Mrs Welch, 54, lived mostly at their £800,000 home in Blandford Forum, Dorset, prosecutors say. Maj Gen Welch, who now works in a university, denies one count of fraud at Bulford Military
Court, Wilts. He is the highest ranking officer to face a court martial since Lieutenant General Sir John Murray was convicted of abandoning his siege guns without due cause in 1815.
The trial continues.
NICOLA Sturgeon insisted she did not want to “get Alex Salmond” as she apologised for a “serious mistake” in the probe into sexual harassment allegations against him.
In an eight-hour hearing, the First Minister expressed “deep regret” two women were failed and more than £500,000 of taxpayers’ cash was wasted in the Scottish Government’s flawed investigation.
But she called Mr Salmond’s claims of a plot against him “absurd”.
Ms Sturgeon faced the Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints.
Mr Salmond appeared last week and accused her of misleading parliament and breaching the ministerial code, both of which she denies.
She also rejected claims by Mr Salmond’s lawyer that she had offered to intervene. It comes after bombshell legal advice published on Tuesday revealed that a QC warned of a major flaw in the investigation two months before the case was conceded – that the investigating officer had prior contact with the female complainers.
A successful judicial review by Mr Salmond resulted in the investigation being ruled unlawful and “tainted by apparent bias”. He was acquitted of 13 charges after a trial.
Ms Sturgeon apologised for the failings, saying: “Although I was not aware of the error at the time, I am the head of the Scottish Government so I want to take this opportunity to say sorry to the two women involved and to the wider public.”
She rejected the “absurd suggestion that anyone acted with malice or as part of any plot”. She added: “A number of women made serious complaints about Alex Salmond’s behaviour.
“As First Minister I refused to follow the age-old pattern of allowing a
powerful man to use his status and connection to get what he wants.”
Ms Sturgeon said her former ally told her of “deeply inappropriate behaviour” in a meeting at her home on April 2, 2018, which she described as a “moment in my life that I will never forget”.
She has come under fire for initially claiming this meeting was the first time she was informed of the complaints. She later admitted to meeting his ex-chief of staff Geoff Aberdein on March 29. She told MSPS Mr Aberdein “did indicate a harassment-type issue had arisen, but my recollection is he did so in general terms”. Describing the April 2 meeting, she said Mr Salmond denied the complaints but he recounted an incident which “he said he had apologised for at the time”.
She denied allegations a senior member of her team leaked a complainer’s name to Mr Aberdein, who passed it on to Mr Salmond. Ms Sturgeon told MSPS of her longstanding friendship with Mr Salmond, who she said had been “one of the closest people to me in my entire life”. She said their bitter feud had been partly sparked by her decision not to intervene on Mr Salmond’s behalf. Mr Salmond has complained to the head of Scotland’s civil service about an official who allegedly breached rules by disclosing the name of a complainant.
He had been one of the closest people to me in my entire life NICOLA STURGEON ON EX-ALLY ALEX SALMOND