The former Scottish Government official who has accused Alex Salmond of trying to rape her insists she made her own decision to speak out about the alleged attack – stressing she was not “cheerleaded” into coming forward.
Woman H said she initially made inquiries with an SNP official in November 2017 about the incidents she says took place in Bute House in May and June, 2014.
Text messages sent by her to the official suggested he would probably be able to “guess” who the allegations involved.
In those messages she described Salmond only as a “former parliamentarian”.
Woman H said: “I was trying to figure out what support the party had in place in the context of the Me Too movement and what happened to me.
“We had subsequent conversations but I didn’t go into any of the details.
“I was still coming to terms with what happened to me.
“I just knew I was struggling with the fact that I didn’t want what happened to me to happen to anybody else who worked with him.”
Woman H eventually spoke to police in September 2018 before a second interview in May 2019.
However, during cross-examination, defence counsel Shelagh McCall revealed she also communicated with other alleged victims from the 14 charges Salmond faces.
A text message sent by another complainer, who is known as Woman J, to Woman H in August 2018 explained she was “mulling over the AS stuff”.
A reply from Woman H said: “I am mulling too, but I have a plan, and means we can be anonymous, but see strong repercussions.”
Mrs McCall asked: “What was the plan?”
Woman H replied: “It was to speak to the party (SNP) lawyer. It was a process for me. I decided at that point to speak to police and I had decided what I would do for myself.”
Mrs McCall also asked if another complainer, Woman A, had done a “ring round” after text messages were exchanged with her.
Woman H replied: “I was aware the party was doing due diligence.”
Woman H also explained it was a “coincidence” that she contacted a SNP official the day following Aberdeen Donside MSP Mark McDonald’s resignation as a Scottish Government minister during the time of the Me Too movement – saying she had not considered Salmond might stand for election back to the Scottish Parliament if Mr McDonald also resigned as a MSP.
Mrs McCall asked if the two events were a “coincidence”.
Woman H replied: “It isn’t a coincidence about the Me Too movement, which was the whole issue about women being basically abused by people in positions of power.”
