Salmond ‘like an octopus as I tried to get him off me’
A WOMAN said it was like “wrestling with an octopus” try- ing to fight off Alex Salmond when he grabbed her, a court heard yesterday.
The former first minister of Scotland, 65, had allegedly been trying to recreate the image of a “sexualised” Christmas card.
A civil servant in the Scottish Government told the High Court in Edinburgh she was assaulted by Salmond following a meeting in Bute House – the first minister’s official residence – in 2010.
The jury was shown an image of a Christmas card featuring a man and a woman about to kiss beneath the mistletoe.
She said: “There [were] two individuals on the card – the older male, taller with glasses and a younger female, who was quite scantily clad. I didn’t think it was an appropriate image for the first minister and his wife to send out. My view was the picture was too
Henry Vaughan
sexualised.” The witness, known as Woman B, said she raised her reservations with Salmond and others at the meeting. The court heard they all agreed it was inappropriate but the civil servant said she was assaulted when left alone in the room with Salmond.
Shocked
She said: “He immediately just said, ‘Let’s recreate the pose on the Christmas card’. He grabbed my wrists and pulled me towards him and I was just shocked. I used my hands to try to get him off.
“It felt like every time I managed to get a hand off another hand would appear. He was very persistent and it felt like I was wrestling with an octopus. I felt like there was always another hand. I wanted it to stop.”
She told the jury the alleged assault ended when a colleague came to the door. Woman B said she spoke to her line manager about the incident.
She added: “I didn’t think there was really an option to take things further at that time because of the relationship between the civil service and the first minister.
“I felt that if I had complained formally, then I would be the problem and I would be moved and I had worked really hard.”
Shelagh McCall QC, representing Salmond, suggested her client had been in a “playful mood” that evening and asked if Woman B would describe the incident as “high jinks”. She replied: “I certainly didn’t take it that way.”
Salmond is accused of 14 offences against 10 women, including sexual assault and attempted rape, between June 2008 and November 2014. He denies all charges.
The trial continues.