I felt like I was being hunted
WOMAN TELLS COURT
A WOMAN told how she was left in “absolute hell” after Alex Salmond stripped naked and forced himself on top of her in an alleged sex attack.
The Scottish Government official, who can’t be named for legal reasons, told a court how she felt “hunted” as she tried to fight the former First Minister off.
The witness – who is being described as Woman H – said: “I was telling him to stop. He pushed me towards the bed. I fell backwards. Then he climbed on the bed.” Salmond, 65, denies all charges.
FORMER first minister Alex Salmond, 65, is accused of trying to rape a woman following a dinner at his then official residence in Bute House, Edinburgh, in June 2014.
He is also charged with forcing himself on her about a month earlier at the same location.
The former politician went on trial yesterday at the city’s High Court. He denies all the charges.
The witness, a Scottish Government official – described as Woman H – said she was alone with Salmond at the residence on the second occasion and took the opportunity to talk with him about the earlier assault.
She said: “I wanted to explain why the previous incident wasn’t OK. “He just thought it was funny.” Woman H added: “I was sitting on the sofa in the drawing room. He came and sat next to me.
“I had been laying the foundations for what I thought was a line in the sand. It was almost like he was buoyed into action from it. Like it was a challenge.
“He pulled my legs over his. I felt panic and kind of frozen. I had this internal physical reaction to it but couldn’t talk him out of it like I did the other night.
“He was touching my legs, running his hands up and down. He started trying to kiss me and things. I just wanted to get away.
“He was kissing my neck, my face. He was on me. I was talking to him the whole time, trying to explain why this wasn’t OK. I thought I could talk myself out of it.”
Woman H said she tried to get Salmond to stop, telling him not to be “daft” and “you’re my boss” and “you’re drunk”.
She said: “He was touching my chest, over and under my clothes.
“I had got up and paced away. I started to feel like I was being chased. I tried to get to the main door. At that point I was impeded. He put his arm out. He’s quite a big guy.
“It felt like a wrestler’s block. At this point I thought his behaviour had turned. He was titillated by the situation. It was clear he wanted me to kiss him back.”
Woman H described how Salmond was “ogling her” and saying, “Come on”. She said: “I started to feel scared.” The witness said she managed to get away and headed upstairs to fetch belongings but Salmond “followed me up”.
She said: “He was there as I came out the sitting room on the second floor. I was going to go back downstairs and leave but he didn’t want me to go. He was blocking me, touching me, kissing me. He kept asking for me to stay over. He started to become more assertive in his sexual advances. His force was stronger.
“I wasn’t making any progress on getting him to stop. I was thinking, ‘I need to call for help’ but I was so embarrassed this was happening to me. I couldn’t do anything. I was just thinking, How the hell am I going to get out of this one?
“I wished later I had just screamed or kicked him in the nuts but I was so frozen and panicking inside and he wouldn’t stop and wasn’t listening.” In a desperate bid to end the attack, Woman H said she agreed to “stay over” in a separate room.
She added: “I was close to a room with a lock. That’s what went through my head. I can manage the situation. I’ll lock the door, he’ll go to bed and I can run out and get a taxi.”
The witness said she considered it a possible “escape plan without angering him”.
She added: “I was scared he would get angry. “He said, ‘Right, OK, that’s fine’.” Woman H said she got to the room – known as the Connery Room as actor Sir Sean Connery had once stayed there overnight – but Salmond followed her.
She told the jury: “He stepped away from me, which was good. I went through the door.
“He said, ‘I just wanted to talk to you. Let’s just talk and say goodnight and I’ll go upstairs’. He had changed his tone. He had calmed down.” But the woman said Salmond went into the room and “plonked himself down” on a chair with a bottle of red wine in hand.
She said: “He talked to me for a second then he just full-on pounced.
“He was physically all over me, kissing me, taking my clothes off. It all happened really fast. He basically took my clothes off.”
Prosecutor Alex Prentice asked: “Did you want this to happen?” The witness replied: “No.” Woman H said: “I can remember trying to hold on to my things, trying to keep my shirt on and stuff. I was backing away. I felt like I was in some kind of trance.
“I was telling him to stop the whole time. He was taking his clothes off. He pushed me towards the bed. I fell backwards. I didn’t have clothes on.
“He was standing naked at the foot of the bed and then he climbed on the bed.”
Mr Prentice asked: “Was he aroused at all?” The witness replied: “Yes.” Woman H said: “I felt like I was hunted. I remember feeling him on top of me. He was aroused, his private parts on top of me. I just did one final push to get him away and managed to get him on 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 could be quite or a lot drunk, it was hard to know.
“He was muttering how I was being stupid and then he passed out and started snoring.”
Woman H said she went into the bathroom and “curled up” on the floor in a “foetal position”.
She added: “I thought, ‘Stay really quiet and he won’t hear you. I was scared, in shock. I waited until the coast was clear.”
The woman said she fled from Bute House and caught a taxi.
She said she didn’t report the attack after it took place.
Woman H said: “I was in absolute hell. I didn’t want any of this to happen. I did not want to be humiliated at work. “I wasn’t remotely attracted to him. “I didn’t want anyone to think I stayed over with him. That would be the ultimate humiliation. He had other women. I didn’t want to be like that.” Earlier, she had described the first alleged attack in May 2014 at Bute House.
She said Salmond was “half-cut” after boozing during a dinner event and produced a bottle of clear white spirit given to him by the Chinese ambassador.
He persuaded her to drink shots with him, she said, before he pounced as they both sat on the floor.
Woman H said: “He was putting his hand down my top and kissing my face and neck, touching my legs.
“I felt like I was having this otherworldly experience, like an out-ofbody experience. It was like I was frozen inside. I said I thought he was drunk and making a fool of himself.”
The witness told how she repeatedly asked him to stop and never gave consent.
She added: “I managed to get up and make my excuses and leave.
“I felt embarrassed, I felt humiliated, but I also thought I could handle it. I thought it was maybe a one-off thing.”
The trial before judge Lady Dorrian continues.