An SNP MSP has compared the recent police search of a home belonging to Nicola Sturgeon to a notorious investigation into a 1990s serial killer.
James Dornan also accused the police and media of "collusion" over the coverage of three senior Nationalists who were questioned by cops in connection to Operation Branchform.
The Glasgow MSP said the end result was "like Fred West's house" - a reference to the 1994 search of a Gloucester property belonging to serial killers Fred and Rose West.
Dornan made the comments on an episode The News Agents filmed in Glasgow and released today.
Speaking to presenter Lewis Goodall, he defended Humza Yousaf's decision not to suspend Sturgeon after she was arrested and later released without charge last weekend.
Two MSPs have called for the former party leader to be suspended until the police investigation into SNP finances is concluded.
Dornan said: "The issues of people being suspended before were about internal party matters where you could see the behaviour was causing the party harm.
"There is nothing that Nicola has done that we know of that has caused the party any harm.
"The fact that the media decided to make a big play of arresting the leader, the fact the police and the media seem to have some kind of collusion about making sure the media are in attendance when the slightest thing happens.
"It's like Fred West's house when they come to look for a paper trail.
"I don't think at a time like that, that members of our party should be siding with those that look as if they want to do Nicola harm."
Asked if the arrests of three senior Nationalists had not caused the party harm, Dornan added: "Of course it's causing harm.
"But what I'm saying is, where does the information, where does the evidence come from, that leads us to a point, that those three should be arrested in the first place?"
A Scottish Conservative spokesperson said: “Accusing the police of collusion with the media during a live investigation is an extremely serious matter and so we would expect these comments to be looked at very carefully.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Any suggestion that the media were informed in advance of an arrest is untrue.”
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