{"id":505579,"date":"2026-03-31T17:39:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T17:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/505579\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T17:39:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T17:39:11","slug":"ex-snp-candidate-faces-police-probe-over-alleged-sexual-offences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/505579\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-SNP candidate faces police probe over alleged sexual offences"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenational.scot\/news\/25917869.snp-fife-stefan-hoggan-stands-holyrood-election\/?ref=ed_direct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Councillor Stefan Hoggan quit as both the SNP candidate and a party member<\/a> in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenational.scot\/topics\/fife-scotland\/?ref=au\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Fife<\/a> North East on March 8, before news broke that he had faced a complaint.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  According to The Courier, police have launched a probe into an allegation of sexual offences against Hoggan, who sits as an independent on Fife Council.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenational.scot\/news\/25982761.snp-touching-distance-holyrood-majority-reform-second-new-poll-says\/?ref=ed_latest\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">SNP in &#8216;touching distance&#8217; of Holyrood majority and Reform in second, new poll says<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The Cupar councillor has denied any wrongdoing.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenational.scot\/topics\/police-scotland\/?ref=au\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Police Scotland<\/a> spokesperson said: \u201cOfficers are investigating a report of sexual offences committed in the Cupar and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenational.scot\/local-news\/edinburgh-news\/?ref=au\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Edinburgh<\/a> areas, which was received in March 2026.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cInquiries are at an early stage and remain ongoing.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  In a comment to The National, Hoggan said: &#8220;I completely refute the allegations in the media today. They are part of a vile and disgusting vendetta against me and I am fully cooperating with the police. I will make a full statement in due course.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  A SNP spokesperson said: \u201cMr Hoggan resigned as a candidate and an SNP member once a complaint about him was received. The SNP advised the complainant that whilst the party would progress a complaint about safeguarding, any alleged criminal behaviour would be rightly a matter for the police.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;Advice and support was offered to the complainant on how to progress a complaint to the police.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  In a statement prior to the allegations coming to light, Hoggan said he could feel things &#8220;slipping&#8221; after a &#8220;tough&#8221; few years.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  He said: &#8220;I have stepped away, it was an extremely difficult decision, but I have worked very hard to get my physical and mental health to a good place after a tough few years.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cI could feel things slipping again and needed to put myself first.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img  \/><\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cWhoever becomes the candidate in Fife North East has my full support and I wish them the best of luck on winning here and helping the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenational.scot\/news\/25059069.news-interviews-updates-snp\/?ref=au\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">SNP<\/a> secure a majority.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cI would also like to thank all the activists who have played a part in the campaign so far, I am extremely grateful.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Hoggan, from Auchtermuchty, was a performance para swimmer and triathlete for 15 years.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  He was elected to Fife Council in May 2022, and previously contested the 2024 General Election, finishing second behind the LibDems&#8217; Wendy Chamberlain.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Hoggan had previously said he would continue as a councillor in Fife until next year&#8217;s local authority election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Councillor Stefan Hoggan quit as both the SNP candidate and a party member in Fife North East on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-505579","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}