‘I felt hunted,’ woman tells Salmond sex assault trial
AFORMER Scottish Government official has told a court she felt “hunted” by Alex Salmond moments before an alleged attempted rape in Bute House.
The former first minister of Scotland was at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday for the first day of his trial over accusations of sexual assault.
The woman, who is being referred to as Woman H, was first to give evidence and spoke about two alleged incidents, including one charge of the 65-year-old trying to rape her in June 2014.
It is alleged the incident took place after a dinner at the first minister’s official residence.
Woman H told the court that Salmond pulled off her clothes and pushed her onto a bed.
Stripped off himself and aroused, she said he lay on top of her.
She added: “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.”
She told the court she did not give him any indication that she would welcome such contact.
The woman added: “Why would I want to go out with him? He’s a much older man who didn’t look after himself.” The witness said she finally managed to fight him off and escape. She said: “I felt in absolute hell.” Earlier the same woman said Salmond touched her “inappropriately” when they were alone together in a room in Bute House.
She said Salmond was “putting his hand down my top and kissing my face and neck, touching my legs”.
She said she wasn’t asked for consent and wouldn’t have given it.
Recalling the encounter she added: “It was like I was paralysed”.
She said Salmond had earlier encouraged her to drink shots of alcohol with him.
She then told how she fled the room after “making my excuses”.
Woman H said: “I was in shock. I felt that something had happened that wasn’t right. I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible.”
Woman H also described another alleged attack by Salmond at Bute House.
She said Salmond startled fondling her on a sofa and when she managed to get up, she felt “chased” around the room by him.
Salmond blocked her way as she tried to leave, she said.
Woman H added: “He was titillated by the situation.”
Salmond faces 14 charges of alleged offences against 10 women, all of which he has pleaded not guilty to.
The charges span a period between June 29, 2008 and November 11, 2014, with one sexual assault said to have taken place in the month of the Scottish independence referendum in September 2014.
Salmond – who was Scotland’s first minister from 2007 to 2014 – faces a number of other sexual assault charges, as well as two indecent assault charges.
His trial, which is expected to last for four weeks, continues.