Who do you complain to about the first minister? Who is more powerful than him?

Alex Salmond trial: Day 3

An SNP politician told a court Alex Salmond sexually assaulted her during a “surreally awful” journey in his ministerial car.

The complainer, known as Woman C, said the former first minister of Scotland put his hand on her leg while her husband sat in the front with the driver.

She said she was “gobsmacked” but did not tell her husband what had happened at the time.

She said: “I suppose when you look back at things you realise how much you excuse a person because of who they are.

“It is so hard to explain how much he meant to our party and you just put things to one side.

“I didn’t think it was nothing. It was because of who he is and what he was.

“Who on earth was I going to tell and what on earth were they going to do about it?”

She was giving evidence on the third day of Salmond’s trial at the High Court in Edinburgh on accusations of sexual assault, including an attempted rape.

Appearing behind a grey screen, Woman C said the 65-year-old had offered to give her and her husband a lift to Edinburgh Waverley Station in February 2011 when the incident occurred.

She said Salmond, who was travelling from a Pizza Express near the Scottish Parliament to Bute House, encouraged her husband to sit in the front of the vehicle while the two of them got into the back seats.

She said: “At some point in the journey Mr Salmond put his left hand on to my leg just above my knee. It wasn’t a kind of quick touch, maybe you’re chatting and the hand goes out and comes back, he had his hand there and it stayed there for the duration of the journey.

“It was so surreally awful that I didn’t want to say anything. I was just really embarrassed by it and presumed he would stop quite soon because it was so not the right thing to do.”

She told the court Salmond kept his hand on her leg until they got to the train station and that nobody else noticed what he was doing.

She added: “I was absolutely gobsmacked. The first minister – who I really looked up to – had done that and I was gobsmacked.

“People were talking – my husband was talking, that’s what made it bizarre – everything was still continuing to go on.

“I just froze. I sat there thinking ‘just stop’.”

When Shelagh Mccall QC, Salmond’s co-counsel, suggested to Woman C that the reason she did not report the matter was because it did not happen, the witness replied: “I absolutely wish that was the case because I wouldn’t need to be here today.”

Earlier in the day, the jury heard from Woman H, a former Scottish Government official, who was giving evidence for a third day.

Under cross-examination by Ms Mccall, she denied willingly having sex with the former minister.

Woman H had previously told the court she felt “hunted” by Salmond who “pounced” on her before subjecting her to a sexual assault at his then official residence at Bute House in Edinburgh following a dinner in June 2014. She alleged he pulled her clothes off, pushed her on to a bed and then lay naked on top of her despite her protesting for him to stop.

Yesterday morning Ms Mccall told Woman H it was her client’s position that the dinner had actually taken place in August 2013 and that he had a “consensual” sexual encounter with her.

She replied: “That’s not true. I have never been a willing participant in Alex Salmond’s advances towards me and never will be.”

When Ms Mccall put it to her that she had started to unbutton Salmond’s shirt as they were saying goodnight, kissed him and then helped to pull his trousers down to his knees, Woman H said: “I spent a large part of that evening trying to dodge his advances.”

In response to Ms Mccall’s suggestion that Salmond’s underpants were not down during the encounter, Woman H replied: “Absolutely not. I have got this horrific image of him being fully aroused and lying over me.”

Ms Mccall said the encounter had ended when the woman said to Salmond that she had not “meant this to happen” and they realised they had got “carried away” and it was a mistake.

She added: “I am putting to you that’s exactly what you said at that point.

“The two of you sat up, put your clothes back on, realised it was a mistake.”

The woman said: “Absolutely not, it sounds a much better ending of an evening than what actually happened.”

Salmond faces 14 charges of alleged offences against 10 women, all of which he denies.

His lawyers have lodged special defences of consent and alibi.

The trial, before judge Lady Dorrian, continues.

Alex Salmond arrives at the High Court in Edinburgh.