Fending off Salmond’s hands ‘was like wrestling an octopus’ Britain
Fighting off sexual advances from Alex Salmond was like ‘‘wrestling with an octopus’’, a civil servant told the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday.
The woman said that the former SNP leader, who faces 13 charges of alleged sexual offences against nine women, had tried to pull her into his embrace to recreate a ‘‘sexualised’’ image on a proposed Christmas card.
Identified as Woman B to protect her anonymity, she said she had finally broken free when a male colleague returned to the drawing room in Bute House, Edinburgh, the official residence of the first minister, the post Salmond held until 2014.
The court was told that she raised the issue with a colleague the next day but chose not to lodge a formal complaint ‘‘because of the relationship between the civil service and the first minister’’. Woman B said: ‘‘I felt if I made a formal complaint and took things further, I would be the problem and be removed and I’d worked really hard.’’
The court was told that she had been gathering up papers after an evening meeting when Salmond said: ‘‘Let’s try to recreate the pose on the Christmas card.’’ The picture by Jack Vettriano, displayed on a screen in court, showed a woman dressed in a short ‘‘Santa’’ dress looking up into the eyes of a dominant male lover, about to kiss him. ‘‘He grabbed my wrists and pulled me towards him. I was shocked,’’ Woman B said.
‘‘I kept trying physically to get his hands off. I felt like every time I got a hand off, another would appear. He was very persistent. I felt like I was wrestling with an octopus. There was always another hand.’’
She added: ‘‘Because he said, ‘Let’s recreate the pose on the Christmas card’ I knew it was a sexualised approach.’’
She told the court that Salmond released her when the male official came in. Woman B said in evidence that she reported the incident to a female colleague and to her husband, and threw out a charity wristband she had been wearing that evening because ‘‘I felt like it was contaminated’’.
Cross-examined by Shelagh McCall, QC, for Salmond, she added: ‘‘I think if I had complained it would have been swept under the carpet. I think I would have suffered in my career, I would have been removed as I never saw anyone in senior office in the Scottish government challenge Alex Salmond about his behaviour.’’ McCall suggested the alleged incident was ‘‘high jinks’’. Ms B said: ‘‘It was 11pm in Bute House, I don’t think that can be described as ’high jinks’.’’ She added: ‘‘I think my colleague was shocked and quite surprised. I think he said ‘Ms B are you OK?’’
Christopher Birt, a civil servant, later told the court he would not have trusted the civil service to handle ‘‘sensitive’’ complaints against Salmond that he received in the run-up to the independence referendum.
Gordon Jackson, QC, for the defence, suggested there had never been ‘‘any thought’’ at the time of contacting the police about Salmond’s behaviour towards women. Birt replied: ‘‘It was difficult for us to do anything further because the civil service had allowed this to build up over time.’’
Salmond, 65, Aberdeenshire, charges.
‘‘He grabbed my wrists and pulled me towards him. I was shocked.’’
Woman B
of Strichen, denies all