Salmond’s sloppy kisses left me feeling disgusted
Woman tells sex trial of ‘gropings’
‘It was entirely inappropriate’
ALEX Salmond subjected one of his alleged victims to ‘ sloppy’ kisses and groped her bottom leaving her disgusted and humiliated, a court heard yesterday.
The senior Scottish government official – known only as Woman A – said she did not report the former first minister’s repeated ‘unacceptable conduct’ because he was ‘the most powerful man in the country’.
Another woman, an SNP politician named as Woman C, also told how she was ‘gobsmacked’ when Salmond sexually assaulted her in the back of a government car while her husband was present. But she also did not feel she could say anything because he was ‘everything’ to the party.
The two witnesses yesterday gave evidence at the trial of the former SNP leader, who is accused of 14 sex offences against ten women. The charges against him include one of attempted rape, 11 of sexual assault – including one with intent to rape – and two of indecent assault. He denies all charges.
Yesterday Woman A told the High Court in Edinburgh that Salmond would greet her if he was ‘in a good mood’ by deliberately kissing her. She said: ‘ He gave the impression he was going to kiss me on the cheek but would end up kissing me on my lips.
‘I was quite disgusted, embarrassed, quite humiliated. I didn’t know how to react to it. He would kiss me on the lips. It was very sloppy. It was very unpleasant.’
The court heard that Salmond held the woman by the shoulders and kissed her around ten times and touched her up about four or five times during political campaigning in 2008.
She added: ‘Sometimes he would put his hands on my back but would move them so they were on the side of my chest or on my bum.
‘I took the view it was deliberate. There was no need for it, there was no need for his hand to be there. It wouldn’t have been something you could do by accident.’ The woman said she began carrying a bag when she had to accompany Salmond for work to stop him from touching her.
She also spoke of another occasion in which Salmond groped her in a nightclub in Edinburgh in 2010. She said: ‘He looked at me and placed his hand on my shoulder, and down the side of my chest, and down my hips and said, “You look good, you’ve lost weight”.’
She added: ‘He ran his hands down the curve of my breast, down to my waist, and my hips.’ Gordon Jackson QC, representing Salmond, asked her of the incident: ‘You call that groping?’ She replied: ‘Yes’. But she said she felt that she could not take action against him because he was the ‘most powerful man’ in Scotland.
The court also heard from Woman C, an SNP politician, who alleged that Salmond placed his hand above her knee in the back of a government car in 2011 while her husband was sat in the front.
She said: ‘I was gobsmacked that it happened and everyone else in the car was carrying on as normal.’ But Woman C felt she could not say anything because of who Salmond was.
‘It is hard to explain to people just how well thought of he was in our party. He was everything. He was not just a leader, he had taken the party so far and my husband absolutely adored him,’ she said.
The woman added: ‘I thought it was entirely inappropriate and wrong and I suppose when you look back at things you excuse a person because of who they are. You just put things to a side.’ Earlier the court heard that Salmond had claimed he had a consensual ‘ sexual encounter’ with a third alleged victim, called Woman H, who has accused him of ‘hunting’ her in an attempt to rape her. Shelagh McCall QC, also representing Salmond, suggested it was the complainant who unbuttoned the married former first minister’s shirt, kissed him, and pulled his trousers down to his ankles.
The barrister suggested the tryst ended when the pair ‘sat up... put your clothes back on and realised it was a mistake’.
But Woman H replied: ‘Absolutely not, it sounds a much better ending of an evening than what actually happened.
‘Mr Salmond was passed out drunk, snoring, exhausted by his attempts to get me to sleep with him because he said he’s such a good lover.’
She added: ‘I have never been a willing participant in Alex Salmond’s advances towards me and never will be.’
The trial continues.