A former Scottish Government official has described feeling like she was being “hunted” by Alex Salmond during a pursuit that culminated in him lying naked on top of her at Bute House.
Mr Salmond went on trial at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday, facing 14 charges of indecent and sexual assault.
One woman described two alleged incidents, including one charge that the former first minister tried to rape her at his official residence in June 2014 – just months before the Scottish independence referendum.
She told the court she had been delighted to be working on the “campaign of a lifetime” and said she was “proud” to be working every day at the time for the cause.
However, the former official – who can only be named as Woman H – said she felt “humiliated” and “embarrassed” following the alleged incident.
She revealed that one evening during May 2014 she was “groped” by the then first minister following a dinner inside Bute House.
She said Salmond, of Strichen, was “half cut” following the engagement before inviting her to have “shots” of a drink he received from a Chinese ambassador while he sat on the floor.
The woman described being kissed and fondled during the incident while repeating asking him to stop, and said she felt “paralysed”.
She said: “I was in shock. I know that something had happened that was not right. I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible.”
Advocate depute Alex Prentice, prosecuting, said: “Did you give some thought to recruiting some help of any kind?”
Woman H said she “wished” she had but it was not a “normal” job and that Salmond’s “behaviour and his mood could vary quite rapidly”.
“He did have a very high pressure job and we did make allowances”, she added. “Looking back, we shouldn’t have made as many allowances.
“I didn’t want people to know. I didn’t want to be another one of his women.”
The woman said that following another dinner at Bute House a month later she had tried to challenge Salmond about the previous alleged incident – stressing to him it could not be allowed to happen again because she had a boyfriend.
However, she said he was initially “dismissive” and then seemed to find it “funny”, before lifting her legs onto his while they sat together on a sofa.
The woman said she was “paralysed” and “felt frozen” as Salmond began touching her legs and chest – describing him as “titillated” by the situation as he blocked her attempts to leave by leaning on a door.
She described being “chased” over two floors of Bute House as Salmond continued to try and kiss and touch her while asking her to stay the night – which she says she eventually agreed to on the condition they stayed in separate rooms.
She described this as being “a bit of an escape plan”.
When she entered her room it was heard Salmond followed her in with a bottle of red wine.
She said: “He talked to me for a second, then he just full-on pounced.”
She added: “It was dark at this point. He was physically all over me and kissing me. He started taking my clothes off.
“It happened really fast, really fast.”
The woman described a “struggle” as she attempted to hold onto things in an attempt to thwart his attempts to undress her before he stripped himself and pushed her onto the bed. The woman said he then climbed on to the bed and on top of her.
She said: “I kept saying to him ‘What are you doing?’ and ‘stop’ but he didn’t.
“I felt like I was being hunted. I remember feeling him on top of me, his private parts on top of mine.
“I made one final push to get him away and managed to get him over to the other side of the bed. he kept saying to me he will be a great lover.
“I think he was a bit drunk.
“He was muttering how I was being stupid and then he passed out and started snoring.”
Woman H said she waited to make sure he was asleep and then went to the bathroom.
Mr Prentice asked: “How did you feel about what had happened?”
Woman H said: “I was scared. I was in shock, I was in shock for a long time afterwards. I felt humiliated and embarrassed. I didn’t want people to know, I was mortified.”
The woman told the court she left Bute House through a back door so people would not know she had “stayed over”.
She said: “He had other women. I didn’t want to be considered as that. I was really scared.”
She told the court she did not give Salmond any indication that she would welcome such contact, and said: “Why would I want to go out with him? He’s a much older man who didn’t look after himself.”
Salmond denies the charges against him.
His lawyer Gordon Jackson QC has lodged a special defence of alibi for the alleged incident in May 2014. He has also lodged a defence of consent for three alleged sexual assaults and an alleged indecent assault against three women.
The trial, before Lady Dorrian, is expected to last four weeks. It continues today.
