A former Scottish journalist who later went into politics says her phone was hacked while she was working for Glasgow-based daily The Herald.

Joan McAlpine, now a Scottish National Party MSP and aide to Scottish first minister Alex Salmond, revealed that her phone was hacked by a private investigator working for the News of the World while she was working as a journalist.

She said police had approached her several months ago to explain she was a phone-hacking victim.

Detectives are reported to have found her home and mobile phone numbers and address in notebooks belonging to Glenn Mulcaire, the News of the World’s private investigator who was jailed in 2007 for phone hacking.

Joan wrote in her Daily Record column that she had been left “sickened” and feeling “violated” by the discovery.

She wrote: “When Strathclyde Police called me to say they thought my phone had been hacked, my first thought was for my family. Did some sleazy hack listen to messages from my teenage daughter?

“I felt more sickened when the detective showed me a copy of a private investigator’s notebook, containing not just my mobile, but my home number and address.

“You feel violated, as though your home has been broken into. It preys on your mind. Were they watching the house when my girls came home from school? Did they have cameras trained on their bedrooms?”

Joan worked for News International, owner of the News of the World, from 1999 to 2001 as features editor and columnist at the Sunday Times Scotland.

She left in 2001 to join The Herald as deputy editor of the broadsheet.

She went on: “I have particular reason to be outraged at the phone hacking, as I once worked for News International at the Sunday Times.

“I never came across anything illegal when I was there – nor indeed throughout my long career in journalism. It makes me angry that a few bad apples are damaging a whole profession, which is essential in a democratic society.”