Sex offender Alan Donnelly’s interim suspension as an Aberdeen councillor has been extended by the Standards Commission.
The former deputy lord provost is now barred until September while a report into his misconduct is finalised.
Donnelly has refused to resign from the council after being convicted of sexual assault at a city function in 2018.
Having denied touching his victim’s face, hair and body and kissing him on the face, the shamed Torry and Ferryhill member was found guilty at trial in December.
Sheriff Ian Wallace told Donnelly he had given evidence “which is untrue” and later sentenced him to an eight-month supervision order and placed him on the sex offenders register.
He was also ordered to pay his victim £800 in compensation.
After his conviction, the exiled councillor resigned from the Scottish Conservatives and was stripped of his positions on the local authority’s committees and the boards of other organisations.
But his refusal to resign leaves only the Standards Commission with the power to remove him from office.
In March Donnelly was handed a three-month ban by the watchdog, the maximum that can be imposed in the first instance.
Due to expire tomorrow, his interim suspension will now run on until September 3.
The ban is to cover the time taken for Ethical Standards Commissioner Caroline Anderson’s report to be finalised.
Her investigation was expected to conclude by mid-April but a draft of the report was only sent to Donnelly for comment late last month.
Although the commission has already acknowledged he breached the code of conduct, Donnelly cannot be referred officially until the report is submitted, which is perhaps another month away.
It is understood it would then take a further six weeks before a hearing.
Announcing the renewed suspension, the Standards Commission said its three-person panel had concluded it was “proportionate and in the public interest”.
They had concerns public confidence in scrutiny of public figures would be “adversely affected” if Donnelly were allowed to return to work while “complaints of such a
serious nature, involving criminal conduct” were outstanding against him.
The panel also feared it could have an adverse impact on the council’s reputation.
When called for comment, Donnelly said: “I have nothing to say until this is all over”.
He would not confirm if he still intended to appeal his criminal conviction before abruptly hanging up the telephone.
