BILL Walker, the wifebeating former SNP MSP for Dunfermline, has been accused of being “in excessive denial” after writing a book claiming he is the victim of a “vendetta”.

Mr Walker quit Holyrood in 2013 after he was found guilty of 23 counts of assault involving three former wives and a stepdaughter over 30 years and given a 12-month jail term.

Sentencing him, Sheriff Katherine Mackie noted his “complete absence of any remorse”.

Mr Walker has now self-published the first half of a two-part electronic autobiography called “Setting the Record Straight”, available on Amazon.

Mr Walker, 75, claims SNP HQ first heard of a domestic abuse complaint against him in early 2008, via a member of staff in Nicola Sturgeon’s constituency office, but did not raise it with him until after six months he was elected in 2011.

He says a former in-law launched a “vendetta” against him and that “certain individuals in the SNP hierarchy” knew it, but says the details will not be revealed until Volume 2 of his book.

The memoir threatens to revive memories of one of the murkiest episodes in SNP history.

Ms Sturgeon admits her office was told of an allegation about Mr Walker, but says HQ - run by her future husband Peter Murrell - checked it and found no evidence of any legal complaint or proceedings.

In the book's foreword, the former convener of Dunfermline SNP also says Mr Walker was the victim of a “witch-hunt” and he finds it “impossible to accept the guilty verdict”.

Joseph Miller suggests a “multitude of unhappy spouses” have threatened to “pour a cup of hot coffee” over their other half, as Mr Walker did to one of his wives.

A Labour spokesperson said: “Bill Walker is a bully and a misogynist. He has been in excessive denial about what he did. If he wants to set the record straight he should start by apologising to his victims, and admitting that he was never a fit or proper person to be an MSP and should never have put himself forward to represent the people of Dunfermline. "

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