SALMOND HAD SAID SORRY TO WOMAN WHO ACCUSED HIM OF ASSAULT
‘She was in my bedroom... it should not have happened’ ‘ I apologised... I was First Minister. We were both very tipsy’
ALEX Salmond yesterday admitted he apologised to a woman who he was later accused of sexually assaulting.
The former First Minister said the Scottish Government official known as Ms F had a ‘legitimate grievance’ against him over the incident – ‘even if it isn’t what happened’.
He is accused of sexual assault with intent to rape and it is alleged he lay on top of her and touched her buttocks, thighs and breasts.
Salmond, 65, is on trial over 13 alleged sexual offences against nine women. He denies all charges.
At the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday, Salmond was asked about the alleged incident with Ms F at the First Minister’s residence of Bute House in Edinburgh in December 2013. He said: ‘I apologised. I was First Minister. She was in my bedroom. We were very tipsy. It should not have happened. I put her in an embarrassing position, and that was not right.’
Salmond said a staff member later approached him in the Scottish parliament, after Ms F had raised concerns about the then First Minister’s behaviour.
The colleague told Salmond that Ms F had said she had been in Salmond’s bedroom and there had been a cuddle and an attempted kiss, and she had wanted to have the matter ‘resolved informally’.
Salmond, who described himself as a journalist, TV presenter and retired politician, told the court: ‘I said to him [the colleague] that we had been drinking, but nothing happened.’
Asked about the charge against him that he had intended to rape Ms F, Salmond said: ‘I have never attempted a non-consensual sexual relationship with anyone in my entire life.’
Describing the incident itself, Salmond said he had suggested going to his bedroom to work with Ms F as it would be warmer.
They had been drinking shots of Maotai spirit, which Salmond said was the Chinese equivalent of whisky.
Salmond said Ms F had sat on the bed to put on her boots.
He said he sat next to her and was about to give her a kiss goodnight, adding that ‘we lapsed into a sleepy cuddle’. Gordon Jackson,
QC, representing Salmond, turned to the evidence of another complainer, Ms H, a former Scottish Government official, whom Salmond is accused of attempting to rape.
Mr Jackson asked: ‘How many times did you have a sexual encounter with [Ms H]?’
Salmond replied: ‘Once and once only.’ He said a ‘consenting’ sexual encounter had happened in August 2013 and described it as having taken place ‘at [Ms H’s] initiative’. Salmond denied the claim that he attempted to rape her in June 2014 following a Bute House dinner with an actor.
He said he believed she was ‘annoyed’ about a disagreement over a project.
Salmond said it was later suggested to him that if he was to put his name forward to be a political candidate, there would be a complaint against him from Ms H.
Mr Jackson asked about allegations from a civil servant, Ms B, who alleges that Salmond sexually assaulted her by grabbing her wrists and attempting to kiss her.
Salmond said that on the evening of the alleged incident, he and colleagues had been joking about using a Jack Vettriano image on an official Christmas card.
The alleged assault came after Salmond is said to have invited Ms B to ‘recreate the pose’ in the painting, called Ae Fond Kiss, which shows a man and a woman under mistletoe. Mr Jackson asked him: ‘The joke has been misunderstood?’
Salmond said ‘over the passage of time’, the incident is ‘maybe misremembered’.
He said: ‘I took [Ms B’s] hands, it was a joke, high jinks, a piece of fun. It was never meant to be anything other than that.’
Asked if he had taken his sense of humour ‘much too far’, Salmond said: ‘From where I’m standing now, yes.’ Salmond was
‘I took [Ms B’s] hands, it was a joke, high jinks, a piece of fun’
‘Claims are fabrication from start to finish’
questioned about an SNP politician, known as Ms C, who has accused Salmond of touching her leg in the back of a car in 2011.
He said a phone had been fitted in the car, which meant the seat rest was always down.
He said: ‘In order to have your hand on someone’s knee, you would have to stretch over the arm rest.
‘But you could not do it without being seen by both people in the front.’
Questioned about civil servant Ms D – Salmond is accused of touching and stroking her hair – Salmond denied sexual motivation.
He said: ‘The one thing I did do occasionally, I would tug at her hair.
‘I used to tug it occasionally – it was no more than an affectionate gesture.’
Salmond was asked about a claim that he had stroked her while she slept in a car.
He said: ‘She had fallen asleep and rather than shake her I stroked her cheek to wake her up so I did not startle her.’ Salmond denied sexual intent. Salmond was also asked about an incident when he had reached out to stroke Ms D’s hair in a lift, but he said he was stopped by a male colleague.
He said: ‘I reached out to give her hair a tug. I did not get there because [the male colleague] stopped me.’ He said it was ‘not sexual’.
Asked by Mr Jackson: ‘Why do you do that sort of stupid stuff?’,
Salmond said: ‘From where I stand, I wish I had been more careful with people’s personal space, but there was no intention to offend whatsoever.’
He said some of the complaints against him were ‘fabrications, deliberate fabrications for a political purpose’.
Salmond suggested that the ‘impact of some of the publicity over the past 18 months has led some people to revise their opinions and say, “Something happened to me”.’
He said: ‘People can get into a sausage machine and cannot get out of it even if they want to.’
Regarding Ms A, who alleges Salmond kissed her on her mouth and touched her buttocks and breasts, Salmond denied the claims.
He said: ‘It would be insane to be doing anything like that.
‘Her claims are fabrication from start to finish.’
Under cross-examination by advocate depute Alex Prentice QC, Salmond said he had ‘no knowledge’ of claims that measures had been put in place to stop him being alone with women at certain times at Bute House.
He said: ‘I had no knowledge at the time and it couldn’t have been put into effect without me noticing.’
Mr Prentice asked Salmond about Ms F and whether he could see how ‘chilling’ it was for the former First Minister to instruct a young woman to ‘get on the bed’ late at night in Bute House.
Mr Salmond said that it did not happen.
The trial, before Lady Dorrian, continues.