SHAMED former politician Bill Walker has claimed that the SNP were aware of domestic abuse allegations against him before he stood as a party candidate.

The convicted wife-beater and former MSP for Dunfermline has even accused the party of being “embroiled in orchestrating a political cover-up” in the second part of his self-published autobiography.

Walker, 75, was elected to Holyrood in 2011 but was kicked out of the SNP the following year after being charged with a catalogue of domestic abuse allegations against three former wives.

He was accused of 30 separate offences between 1967 and 1995 but continued as an independent MSP until he was put behind bars for 12 months in September 2013.

Sheriff Katherine Mackie told Walker that he showed “no acknowledgement of any unacceptable behaviour” and that she felt there was “no indication of any motivation to change.”

Disgraced Walker had denied 23 charges of assault – which included striking his then teenage step-daughter with a saucepan during an attack in 1978 – and one of breach of the peace, but was found guilty at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

Earlier this year, we reported that Walker had released the first half of his electronic publication – titled ‘Setting the Record Straight’ – in which he said he was a victim of “personal and political treachery”.

After claiming to be the victim of a “vendetta” by a former in-law, Walker also suggested that SNP HQ first heard of a domestic abuse complaint against him in 2008 – via a member of staff in Nicola Sturgeon’s constituency office – but did not raise it with him until six months after he was elected.

He vowed to reveal the details in volume two, which is to be published next year, and stated it would “focus on the murky world of party political manipulation and control and my treatment by a Scottish criminal justice system that I would suggest has shown tenuous concern for the pursuit and delivery of justice”.

Walker added: “Volume two will provide an account of my experience which will meticulously detail how the SNP hierarchy were both aware of allegations made by a relation of a former wife many years prior to my candidacy and election as an MSP, and then embroiled in orchestrating a political cover-up.”

After initially defying calls to stand down – led by then First Minister Alex Salmond and the Press – after his conviction, Walker eventually resigned ahead of his sentencing, complaining of a “media onslaught” against him.

An appeal against his sentence was thrown out in October 2013 but Walker was released after serving just half of his jail term.

Walker’s claims of being a victim of a vendetta were slammed by the Labour Party, a spokesman for whom said he was a “bully and a misogynist” who was “in excessive denial” about what he did.

An SNP spokesperson stated that he was expelled from the party “when information he had withheld from the party came to light”.