He left his hand on my leg in car
Politician tells jury: I was gobsmacked
AN SNP politician told the court that Alex Salmond put his hand on her leg above her knee as they rode together in his governmental car.
The politician – Woman C – gave evidence that Salmond left his hand there for a “large” part of the journey from beside the Scottish Parliament to Edinburgh’s Waverley Station in February 2011.
A ministerial driver was behind the wheel, she said, while she and Salmond were in the back and another passenger was seated in the front.
Salmond had offered to give her a lift, she said. She added: “I thought it would be rather cool to go in a government car.”
Woman C said: “At some point in the journey, Mr Salmond put his left hand on my leg, just above the knee.
“It wasn’t a quick touch. He put his hand there and it stayed there for pretty much the duration of the journey until we got to Waverley Station.”
Prosecutor Alex Prentice QC asked if she did anything to “encourage” Salmond.
She replied: “No. I’m not a touchy-feely person.”
Woman C told the trial she was “gobsmacked” by Salmond’s actions, adding she “really looked up to” him.
Asked if she said anything to Salmond, the witness replied: “I was embarrassed. I hoped it would go away and it would stop.”
She later added: “I suppose I was in shock. It was so surreally awful that I didn’t want to say anything.
“I was embarrassed that it had happened and I kind of presumed he would stop quite soon. You think this can’t carry on much longer but it did.”
Shelagh McCall QC, defending Salmond, said her client denied touching her leg. Woman C replied: “I absolutely wish that was the case because then I would not have to be here today.” Asked by Ms McCall why she didn’t move when Salmond allegedly touched her leg, Woman C said: “I froze.” She said that Salmond’s behaviour was “entirely inappropriate and wrong”. Woman C added: “When you look back you realise how much you excuse a person because of who he was. It’s so hard to explain how much he means or meant to our party. It’s because of who he is and what he was. “Who on earth was I going to tell and what on earth was I going to do about it?” Salmond denies all charges against him including the sexual assault of Woman C.