Alex Salmond’s sexual assault trial gets under way

A woman who worked for the Scottish government has claimed that Scotland's former first minister Alex Salmond "pounced" on her before taking his clothes off and pushing her onto a bed. The former official, identified as Woman H, was giving evidence on the first day of Mr Salmond's trial on 14 charges, including sexual assault and attempted rape.

She is one of 10 women who allege that Mr Salmond committed offences against them between 2008 and 2014. He denies all the charges.

The woman said she was working at the first minister’s official residence of Bute House in Edinburgh on an evening in June 2014 when Mr Salmond sat next to her on a sofa and attempted to kiss her.

“I just wanted to get away and tried to get away. I told him to stop, I just wasn’t getting through, he was just trying to make banter out of it,” she said.

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She said that when she got away from him and went upstairs to collect her belongings, Mr Salmond followed her and pinned her against a wall.

‘Being hunted’

She said he attempted to pull of her clothes and removed his own before “not violently but assertively” pushing her onto a bed and getting on top of her naked.

“I felt like I was being hunted. I remember feeling him on top of me, his private parts on top of mine, and I was thinking holy Christ. I made one final push to get him away and I managed to get him away over to the other side of the bed. I kept saying no, no, I’ve got a boyfriend, stop, you’re drunk and all that,” she said.

The woman said that Mr Salmond had assaulted her at Bute House a month earlier but she had not told anyone about it because she had felt embarrassed and humiliated.

‘Groped me’

“He was putting his hand down my top and kissing my neck, touching my legs. He just groped me, I don’t have another word for it. I froze inside, I verbally communicated that I wasn’t happy, I said ‘what are you doing, you shouldn’t be doing this’, and he found it funny. I was embarrassed and I felt humiliated, so no, I didn’t speak to anybody because I felt that I had done something wrong almost and I didn’t want people to know,” she said.

Mr Salmond's lawyer said the former first minister believes that three of the 10 women consented to sexual contact and that he has an alibi for one of the alleged incidents. Judge Leeona Dorrian told the 15-person jury that although Mr Salmond was a very well-known person, they must judge the case solely on the basis of what they hear in court.

“The overriding requirement that you must satisfy is that of impartiality. If you think that there is any reason that you cannot be impartial you must inform the clerk. You cannot allow yourselves to be swayed by sympathy or prejudice,” she said.