Scottish Independence: Yes ‘email hacking’ details

An email at the centre of a hacking inquiry within the official pro-independence campaign concerned payment to an academic for writing a newspaper article.

Yes Scotland filed a police complaint after private emails were allegedly accessed. It became aware after it received a media inquiry last week that appeared to contain information from internal correspondence.
The details of the email in question were not initially released but Yes Scotland revealed it was a correspondence with Dr Elliot Bulmer in connection with an article he wrote for the Herald newspaper titled, ‘a Scottish constitution to serve the common weal’.
The pro-independence group said it had no influence over what he wrote and revealed the details of the email to end “unhelpful speculation”.
A Yes Scotland spokesman said: “This matter was first brought to our attention last Wednesday when we were asked for comment on Dr Bulmer and the article in question. We responded quickly, confirming that a small fee had been paid to Dr Bulmer at his request. We were perfectly relaxed and transparent about this.
Legal advice
“However, later that day it became apparent that an email account at Yes Scotland had been accessed illegally and that the information relating to this matter had been gleaned as a result.
“We alerted the police and British Telecom as well as the enquirer who, upon reflection, decided to not proceed further.
“Given that the illegal breach of Yes Scotland email has become the subject of an extensive and ongoing police inquiry involving detectives from Police Scotland’s Digital Forensics Unit, we have - under legal advice and at the request of the investigating officers - been unable to discuss the content of the email relating to Dr Bulmer.
“However, given persistent unhelpful speculation, we can confirm that in the course of a wide-ranging discussion with Dr Bulmer it was suggested that he, as an academic working in a private capacity, might consider writing an article on matters about constitutional frameworks based on his expertise.
“At his request, he was paid a nominal fee for the considerable time and effort he spent on it. We had no input to, or any influence over, what he wrote.
“We would now ask that this serious criminal investigation is allowed to continue unhindered by further unhelpful speculation, accusation and misinformation.”