Former finance minister Derek Mackay has been accused of sending dozens of unwanted messages to a political activist over a period spanning four years.
Shaun Cameron, who is now 25, claims the messages began via social media when he was 21.
Some of the conversations were “quite suggestive” he told the Daily Record. “I often felt ‘I’d better say hello back’. If he wasn’t a senior politician I would have blocked him on Facebook.”
Mr Cameron first met the SNP party member at an event several years ago where he was later contacted on Facebook by him.
It is alleged that in January 2017, Mr Mackay asked: “are these conversations just between us?” and, when the younger man said yes, he invited him to stay over in Edinburgh.
Mr Mackay, who came out as gay in 2013, quit his role as Scottish finance secretary yesterday, just hours before he was due to deliver the Budget.
It was the Scottish Sun who reported that he had sent some 270 messages to a 16-year-old.
Mr Mackay has since apologised to the boy and his family for his behaviour, which he has described as foolish.