DAY 1 – Monday 09 March 2020
a. Jury informed that Alex Salmond is pleading not guilty, and has lodged special defences of consent on various charges and of alibi on another.
b. Lady Dorrian tells the jury that they must judge the case “on the evidence and nothing else” – there will be short break now where they should ask themselves if they can be impartial, “unprejudiced and unbiased”, and judge the case fairly. To be clear jury aren’t being asked if they’re members of a political party or if they have affiliations of that sort – although they were asked if they had “strong feelings of support or animosity” for the accused or the women named in the charges, or if they personally know them
c. Lady Dorrian is briefing the jury, telling them they are “judges not detectives” and shouldn’t go doing their own investigations. They must return a true verdict according to the evidence, not anything they have heard about the accused in the past, and politics is “irrelevant”. Lady Dorrian tells the jury that the burden of proof rests on the Crown throughout proceedings. There are no opening speeches, and the Crown are going to get us started…jurors urged to “pay close attention to the evidence” and take notes for when they consider their verdict.
d. Crown calls their first witness in the case – Woman H. Alex Salmond is accused of sexually assaulting her and attempting to rape her. A screen has been put up in the courtroom so Woman H won’t see Alex Salmond in the dock – the jury can still see her. (Court cleared of the public and most media in an adjoining room watching video feed.) Alex Prentice, leading for the Crown, has Woman H identify herself to the jury. She confirms she worked in politics, as a Scottish government official. Woman H says she has been at Bute House “many times”. There were dinners there “all the time”, and during indyref campaign this would see “high profile supporters of independence” attend so Alex Salmond could put a case to them about them publicly supporting independence.
Lunch adjournment
e. Woman H says Mr Salmond wanted to take shots with their arms linked, as it was “good luck”; “It was uncomfortable, I was never comfortable in his private personal space so that felt awkward”. But “he was in a good mood, so that was something to be celebrated.” Woman H says there was an occasion when she was working at Bute House when Alex Salmond touched her. She says this happened in a sitting room next to his study – jury now examining a floor plan of Bute House.
f. Woman H says she was doing a “wrap up” session late one night with Mr Salmond, when he was “half cut” after a dinner; he wanted to “crack open” a bottle of wine he had got, she thinks, from the Chinese ambassador, and drink “shots” of it. She says Alex Salmond was sitting on the floor, and wanted her to sit down with him. He then touched her “inappropriately”, she says. “He was putting his hand down my top and kissing my face and neck and touching my legs.” She says she didn’t tell anyone because she was “embarrassed” and felt she had somehow done something wrong – she didn’t want people to think she was “another one of his women”.
g. Moving to second “incident”, Woman H says it was another work event at Bute House where there had been alcohol. A famous actor had been there and they were seeing how he could help “facilitate other people in his peer group” following him in backing independence. Later that evening she says she was alone at Bute House with Alex Salmond. She says she wanted to speak to him about how the previous encounter wasn’t okay as she had entered a “serious relationship” with someone else. “He was a little bit dismissive.” She says Alex Salmond came and sat next to her on the sofa. She says he seems to be “buoyed to action” from her saying she had a boyfriend, “like it was a challenge”. He sat by her and pulled her legs over his, she says. She felt “extra vulnerable” as she was wearing a skirt. “I was in an internal kind of panic, like I had frozen”. “He started to try and kiss me and touch my upper body and I just wanted to get away. I was trying to explain to him why this was not okay. I was saying ‘Alex what are you doing, this is daft’.” She adds she was trying to “manage the situation” as she often did with Alex Salmond’s moods; “I thought I could talk him out of it”, but he was laughing and “trying to make banter of it”. She says she got up and backed away, edging towards the door. “I started to feel at that point I was being chased”. She was trying to get to the door to get out, but “he put his arm out and leaned over me. He’s quite a big guy”. She says she felt Alex Salmond’s behaviour “had turned a bit and he was titillated by the situation”. She felt like she was trying to “wrestle” him off; “at this point I started to feel scared”. “He wouldn’t stop pursuing me, kissing me, touching me.” She says there was a “lull” and she ran upstairs to fetch her things. She says Alex Salmond “blocked my exit” from the upstairs room – “he didn’t want me to go. He had his arm over me again and was touching me and kissing me. He kept asking me to stay over.” Woman H says she was “scared of making him angry”; she thought she could say she would stay over in another bedroom, which she thought had a lock, and get Alex Salmond to go upstairs to his own bed. This was “a bit of an escape plan”. Woman H says she thought she was making progress; Mr Salmond “stepped back” away from her, but he then followed her to the bedroom saying he was sorry and that he just wanted to talk. She says he had brought a bottle of wine from downstairs and wanted to have a drink with her.
h. Woman H says “he talked to me for a second, then he just full on pounced. He was physically all over me, he was taking my clothes off. It happened so fast.” She was trying to “duck” and “swerve” him – she didn’t want any of this to happen. “I was telling him to stop the whole time. He was taking his clothes off and I didn’t want any of that to happen. I wanted to keep my clothes on but it happened so quickly.” She says she was trying to put her clothes back on, but she looked up and Alex Salmond was standing over her naked. She says he was aroused, and he climbed onto the bed. She says she was trying to get away. “I kept saying to him, what are you doing, stop,” says Woman H. “I tried to push him away.” “He was right there in my face”, pressing his body against her, she says. “I felt like I was being hunted.” She says she made “one final push” and managed to get Alex Salmond off her; she says she was saying “no, no, I’ve got a boyfriend, stop, you’re drunk”. She says he was muttering about her being “stupid”. “I didn’t want any of it to happen.” She adds, Alex Salmond fell asleep, and she curled herself into a ball hoping he wouldn’t wake up. She eventually got out into a bathroom next door. “I was in shock for a long time afterwards. I felt humiliated and embarrassed.” She says she felt like she wanted to “bury” the experience and not think about it. “He had other women and I didn’t want to be considered as that. I was scared of that.”
Court concludes for the day.
DAY 2 – Tuesday 10 March 2020
a. Woman H says she didn’t speak out about the full details of the alleged incident until she spoke to police in 2018. She once asked a colleague if anything had ever happened to them to figure out if it was a “one off”, a “drunken mistake due to the pressure of the campaign”. She says she was trying to find out if there was a process in the SNP for complaining, but wanted to feel “secure” about it as “the first minister was a very powerful man and I didn’t want to get on the wrong side of him”
b. Court examining text messages between Woman H and someone she describes a staff member at SNP HQ, in late 2017. She was asking about ways to “confidentially discuss sexual misconduct”, involving an “ex parliamentarian”. She says she “was trying to figure out what the party was putting in place in context of #MeToo. Says she “formalised things” in summer 2018, speaking to a solicitor so that “an anonymous complaint could be made to the party and put on record”. She was “coming to terms slowly with what happened” Following Daily Record story on complaints against Alex Salmond in 2018 – “in a selfish way details today make me almost feel relieved it wasn’t just me and I’m not stupid” – text says it was a “systemic pattern”. Alex Prentice is finished questioning Woman H.
c. Shelagh McCall QC is now going to cross examine for the defence. McCall is going over Woman H’s work with Alex Salmond around the Yes campaign, and her time at and access to Bute House. She shifted between several roles, but says “it didn’t really matter where your desk was.” Asked about “disquiet” within the Yes campaign and “personnel issues”; she says “I felt I was being bullied”. Asked if she met with Alex Salmond to discuss this, “a lot of us tried to flag our issues, a lot of us tried to speak to him about our concerns”. Asked about her access to Bute House; did she go in past the security desk? Did she have to sign in? “Not really. Occasionally I might have done but a lot of the time I was with the first minister or key staff” – and thus didn’t sign in. (Short break.)
d. Asking about Woman H trying to become an SNP candidate, and the party’s vetting and selection process. Court looking at texts between Woman H and Tasmina Ahmed Sheik, where H appears to ask if “Alex will be okay” with her becoming a candidate, saying it “it would be great to be working with him again”. She says she was “taking the temperature”. Asks if Woman H dropped out of selection process because she didn’t get Alex Salmond’s endorsement; “I didn’t ask for it”, she replies. Further texts appear to discuss “absolute chaos” in the selection process. Asking if Woman H asked Alex Salmond to attend a fundraiser event in 2017; court shown email from her to him. She says it wasn’t her idea. Asked if she thought she could get him to attend she says she “couldn’t be bothered”, “but sent the email out of courtesy”. Shelagh McCall moves back to Woman H’s contact with the SNP about making an anonymous complaint; she got a reply saying “we’ll sit on that and hope we never need to deploy it”.
e. Shelagh McCall asks if anyone encouraged Woman H to speak to the police; “nobody cheerleadered me to to do this, I’ve done this off my own back. This isn’t fun, I’d rather not do this”. She says she spoke to another complainer about the “process” but “I made this decision on my own”. Asked Woman H if she spoke to another complainer, Woman J, as well as Woman G. She says she was in “regular contact” with J. Text from Woman H to Woman J says she is “mulling” what they call “the AS stuff”, appears to say “I have a plan and means we can be anonymous but see strong repercussions”. Woman H says she was “bricking it” about Alex Salmond’s response, but “felt I was becoming more secure that the process could be confidential and anonymous”. She says the “repercussions” mentioned in text were the police and party taking action over “misconduct”. Asking if Woman H was in contact with another complainer, Woman A. “I remember sending her a text message off the back of the Daily Record story”. Was A doing a “ring round”? H says this was “due diligence”. Asks why Woman H spoke to Woman A. “There was a police investigation…but I didn’t know the full detail of this, I’ve never done this before. This was new to me, I was finding my feet.” Did Woman A encourage her to speak to the police? “No.”
Lunch adjournment
f. Shelagh McCall asking Woman H about the first alleged incident at Bute House. Was she upset? “I was shocked”. Why did she then bring it up again later? “I wanted to make sure it didn’t happen again.” Asks why Woman H put herself in a position for this to happen again? “I had genuinely thought it could have been a one off. I wanted to ensure that he knew I didn’t want it to happen again.” Asks, isn’t it the truth that this incident simply didn’t happen? Woman H says “I wish it wasn’t true, but that’s not the case.” Shelagh McCall runs through a list of dates when she says Alex Salmond was not at Bute House that month; “what about the dates in between?” asks Woman H. Jury now examining first minister’s diary for that month. “Some of the stuff in the diary will have happened and some of it won’t. That’s the nature of the beast,” says Woman H. First minister also had a calendar which would be more contemporaneous but “I wasn’t privy to that information”. McCall says there doesn’t seem to be any dinner at which woman H was present; so isn’t it true there was no incident with Mr Salmond that month? Woman H says “absolutely not – just because there isn’t a dinner doesn’t mean I wasn’t there…I was there regularly for work.”
g. Moving to the second alleged incident (the attempted rape), Shelagh McCall is going through transcript of Woman H’s police interview. H says “this was my first recall of the event, it was my first time saying out loud what had happened to me.” Asks if Woman H went and read Alex Salmond’s book before her next police interview to see what he did that day. “I haven’t read the book. I looked in the index to see if my name was listed and I read that one line.” Woman H insists she hasn’t read Alex Salmond’s book, The Dream Shall Never Die; “it was widely considered a bit of a joke in politics, and I didn’t need to relive the campaign” through it. Asks why Woman H didn’t tell the security guard at Bute House about the alleged sex attack; says “I wish I had screamed or physically reacted but I just turned to stone. I just wanted to get away and for it to stop.” Asking where Alex Salmond got a bottle of wine from, in the upstairs bedroom, if he had just been pinning her to a wall. “He could have brought it upstairs quite easily” Woman H says; she was “on a mission” and didn’t look back at him as she went upstairs.
f. McColl asks why Woman H didn’t get up and walk out when Alex Salmond allegedly started kissing and touching her. “I wish I had. I was freaking out.” How did he get both of their clothes off without her leaving? “I just absolutely froze. I was screaming on the inside.” Asked if she remembers Alex Salmond undressing, Woman H says “it’s all like flashes in my memory. I don’t have a wall to wall account in my head…I have distressing images that replay in my head over and over again.” McCall says Woman H told police she still had her pants on; she says that interview was first time she had really talked about the alleged incident, and the more she was forced to think about it the more she remembered. “I had spent so long trying not to think about it”. Why didn’t Woman H tell Bute House security to put Alex Salmond to bed? “Our job was to protect him as well. I didn’t fully understand what was happening to me. This was a man who was often aggressive and bullying.”
g. McCall asks, isn’t the truth that you weren’t at that dinner and there was no incident? Woman H says “I wish on my life it wasn’t true. I wish I wasn’t there….I wish the first minister had been a nicer and better man and I wasn’t here.” McCall notes Woman H’s email calling off from football event the next day said “dinner went well anyway” – why would she say that if Alex Salmond had tried to rape her? “I was in total shock and I didn’t want anyone to know it had happened…I was scared of this guy.” Court examining various emails about the football event; why was Woman H getting emails if she was at Bute House and could discuss in person? “Civil servants love email,” she says. “They would always email you.”
Court concludes for the day
DAY 3 – Wednesday 11 March 2020
a. The defence resumes questioning of Woman H. Shelagh McCall asks Woman H if there had been a consensual encounter with Alex Salmond, which stopped before they then talked about how they “got carried away” – she says “that’s not true”, she says AS “passed out drunk, exhausted by his attempts to get me to sleep with him”. After a brief re-examination by the Crown where she says “I’m not lying” about being at a dinner, evidence from Woman H is complete. Next witness is not a complainer so the court is being re-opened.
b. Court hearing from a police inspector who was part of Operation Diem, investigation into Alex Salmond. He conducted Skype interview with a celebrity; video played back in court where celeb says he was at a dinner with the first minister and Woman H. In police interview, celebrity says atmosphere at this Bute House dinner was “jovial, optimistic, friendly”; he says one bottle of wine was shared between four people, “nobody was throwing punches and drunk”. Was anyone under the influence? “Not really, no.” Court also hears from Yes Scotland staffer who says Woman H never mentioned being at dinner with the celebrity to him.
c. After a brief morning break, court reconvenes with a fresh witness – a businessman who was at various Bute House dinners. He remembers leaving one with Woman H and others. He says she was “friendly and comfortable” with Alex Salmond.
d. Next witness is a complainer, Woman A, so court being cleared again. Alex Salmond is accused of indecently assaulting her and sexually assaulting her. Woman A tells the court she was working for the SNP in 2008 when Alex Salmond’s behaviour caused her concern. He says he would go in as if to kiss her cheek but then give her a “sloppy and kind of unpleasant” kiss on the lips. Woman A also says “at times he would put his hand on my back and move his hands so they were on the side of my chest or on my bum”. “I took the view it was deliberately…there was no need for his hand to be there, it wasn’t something you would have done by accident.” Did Woman A encourage Alex Salmond to kiss or touch her? “Not at all.” Did she want it to happen? “Absolutely not.” Did she voice disapproval? “I didn’t know how to say ‘don’t do this’ to the first minister, but I would move, I actually began to carry a bag so it was between us”. Why didn’t Woman A tell Alex Salmond to stop? “I liked my job,” she says. “He was the most powerful man in the country….I had experienced volatile mood swings and behaviour from him and it was always easier to move away then risk infuriating or antagonising him.” Did Woman A tell anyone? “I was embarrassed, I was doing this job which meant a lot to me and him humiliating me on a regular basis was embarrassing. I didn’t want to tell people he was doing this….it would make me look weak.”
Lunch adjournment
e. Woman A tells court that Alex Salmond touched her at a party; running his hands down over “the curve of my body” while saying “you look good, you’ve lost weight”. She says she was “kind of internally shocked” and kept her distance from him for the rest of the night. Alex Prentice asks Woman A if she consented to anything Alex Salmond is said to have done to her? “Never”. Did she give a signal of consent? “No”. Prosecution finished with witness, now Gordon Jackson will cross examine.
f. Gordon Jackson says Alex Salmond kissed other people on the lips; “what he did to you was the same he did to members of the public – that’s the sort of man he was”. Woman A says she doesn’t remember seeing Alex Salmond holding other women by the shoulders. Jackson says “these events such as they were are absolutely nothing, and were not distressing in any way or form”. He says they have “turned into criminality” due to “revisionism because other things happened since”. Woman A says that’s “categorically wrong”. Jackson asking why she didn’t later disclose the alleged incidents; Woman A says she had “put them behind me” and “moved on”. Woman A says “I didn’t want to be drawn into a world where I was dealing with my complaint against Alex Salmond….until the police came to see me I was content not to be part of this.” On the incident where Woman A says Alex Salmond ran his hands over her and said she had lost weight, Jackson says “you call that groping?” “Yes,” she replies. He had contended that “nothing happened”; Woman A says “Mr Salmond assaulted me – that’s not nothing”. Asking about Woman A’s contact with other complainers. She says she contacted others off the back of the Daily Record story, saying she thought it “would be difficult for people to handle”, she wanted to “check they were okay”. She says she also reached out to men. Jackson says Woman A was “very much a part of encouraging people to make a complaint, and make things that were trivial, nothing, turned into criminal charges”. Woman A says “I was not encouraging people to make a complaint.”
g. Next witness is Woman C – an SNP politician. Alex Salmond is accused of sexually assaulting her. Woman C says she was celebrating after a Holyrood budget vote, at a restaurant. Alex Salmond offered her a lift to Waverley Station in his ministerial car afterwards to catch a train, she says. Woman C says Alex Salmond put his hand on her leg, above the knee, and kept it there for “a large proportion of the journey”. Did she invite him to do this? “Absolutely not”. She was “embarrassed” and “just hoped it would stop”. Asked why she didn’t say something or call for help, Woman C says “it was so surreally [sic] 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.”
h. Shelagh McCall cross examining now. She puts it to Woman C that Alex Salmond “says he never touched your leg”. Woman C replies that “I wish it wasn’t the case, so I wouldn’t be here today.” Asking Woman C about whether she felt under pressure from Woman A to speak to the police. She says she didn’t feel pressure to give a statement; she only wanted to speak about things when she wanted to, but “people were talking about this”. Asking if this was a trivial incident? Woman C says “it was something done by my first minister and leader – it was something you put to one side, because who on earth are you going to tell about something like that?” Asked if she thought alleged incident a sexual assault, Woman C says “it was entirely inappropriate and wrong”. “I suppose when you look back you realise how much you excuse a person because of who they are.”
Court concludes for the day
DAY 4 – Thursday 12 March 2020
a. First witness of the day is Woman F – she is named in two charges, one of sexual assault and one of sexual assault with intent to rape. Woman F describes work as a ScotGov civil servant; it involved her spending time with Alex Salmond, and work carried out at Bute House. Woman F tells the court that Alex Salmond kissed her on the mouth “out of the blue” one day at Bute House. She says she was “taken aback” and was shocked; but didn’t say anything as “the first minister is not someone you would like to express displeasure to”.
b. Woman F says on another occasion when she brought paperwork to Alex Salmond he said they should go upstairs to his bedroom because it “would be warmer there”; she says it was “very cold” in Bute House sitting room where she brought him the papers. She says Alex Salmond had a bottle of Mai Tai, an alcoholic spirit, in his bedroom, and wanted them to drink it. She says he was “drinking steadily” but she just wet her lips because “I never particularly liked drinking with the first minister”. She says as she tried to leave the room, Alex Salmond told her to sit on the bed. She said she felt a “rising panic” but says “this was very much in a working environment and culture where you do whatever the first minister asks of you.” Woman F says she found herself lying on the bed with Alex Salmond on top of her, running his hands under her dress and over her breasts, kissing her face “haphazardly, like someone who had been drinking quite heavily”. Says he was murmuring something like “you’re irresistible”. Woman F says she was worried Alex Salmond was going to try to remove her tights or underwear and “push things further”. However “either he eventually stopped it or his weight shifted so I was able to take advantage of that and get up from the bed.”
c. Woman F says she met with Alex Salmond in his Holyrood office and he apologised; she says he said the alleged incident had been “unacceptable” and that “he had been drinking more than usual, not just that night but in general, due to stress”. Woman F says she spoke to a colleague, but found the alleged incident “extremely difficult to talk about”. She says she wanted to get across that it was “something more serious than the lower level behaviour that we almost took as a baseline”.
d. Gordon Jackson now cross examining Woman F for the defence. On the matter of the alleged goodnight kiss, he says Alex Salmond was “quite a tactile sort of man”; Woman F says “certainly in relation to women, yes”. He suggests there was “a bit of cuddling” between Alex Salmond and Woman F on the bed; he says it was described to him as a “sleepy cuddle”. Woman F says “absolutely not, I refute any suggestion that I cuddled the first minister”. Gordon Jackson suggests both Woman F and Alex Salmond had a lot to drink; she says “I emphatically deny that, I drank very little”. She says the first minister “liked to encourage staff to drink with him”, but says she “personally didn’t like to drink much in his company”. He asks whether Woman F thought of going to the police; she says this was “unthinkable”. Even if she was viewing this as an assault with intent to rape? “I wasn’t processing what was happening through the lexicon of criminal justice. Woman F says Gordon Jackson seems to “underestimate the context all this happening in”. “This was in the run-up to the referendum on independence. Everything we did which was outward facing had potential ramifications which went well beyond personal experience”.
e. One more witness before lunch – another civil servant who says he met Woman F after the alleged incident. He says she seemed “stressed, uncertain about what to say about it, and distressed and not herself”.
Lunch adjournment
f. Next witness is Woman G. Alex Salmond is accused of sexually assaulting her on two occasions. She is talking about another alleged incident where she says Alex Salmond “told” her to come back to Bute House with him after a dinner to drop off some papers. says Alex Salmond told her not to leave after she dropped off the papers, and “beckoned for me to sit next to him on the sofa”. She says she did, as “you didn’t tend to be in a position where you could disagree with him.” She says he then offered her shots of limoncello. [A Sicilian liqueur.] She says she “began to feel slightly intimidated and trapped”. She says Alex Salmond made inappropriate comments, put his arm around her and “leaned in” for a kiss. She says she kept trying to make excuses so she could leave. She says she messaged a colleague saying she wouldn’t do her shift the next day because Alex Salmond had “been out of order”. She says she was “extremely embarrassed” and “confused” and “hated him for what he had just done”.
g. Cross examining for the defence, Gordon Jackson asks if Alex Salmond was being “playful” when he was alleged to have smacked Woman G’s bottom. She replies “I think it was extremely inappropriate”. Woman G says “it just wasn’t an option” to go to the police. “I felt if I became involved in some kind of scandal with him…it would essentially lose the independence referendum because of reports in the media and what his political opponents would do with this information”. Jackson says these were things that were “thought of as nothing at the time”, which years later have become a “criminal thing”. Woman G says they were serious enough so staffing arrangements were changed so women were not allowed to work alone with Alex Salmond.
h. Final witness for the day is Woman G’s mother. She says Woman G told her that she knew something about Alex Salmond that could “change everything”; mother says “I remember I said, oh my god, has he killed Moira?”
Court concludes for the day
DAY 5 – Friday 13 March 2020
a. First Crown witness of the day is Woman K – named in a charge of sexual assault. Woman K says “I just wanted to do my job and feel proud of myself doing my job, and it felt like I was being demeaned. It was unprofessional, but there was nothing I could do about it.” She says she was at a dinner with Alex Salmond when he “forcefully” and “very deliberately” grabbed her buttocks; she says she was “mortified”, and that “I think my heart stopped”.
b. Next witness is Woman J, an SNP party worker who Alex Salmond is accused of sexually assaulting. She says she went to Bute House with Alex Salmond after an event; he was on her phone so she followed him upstairs. She says he offered her a drink; she said yes, although “he asked me as he was pouring”. Woman J says she raised her arms to break Alex Salmond’s connection to her shoulders, and stepped back; she says she was “in complete shock” but says he “acted like nothing had happened”. She says she was “glad his reaction wasn’t angry”. She says Alex Salmond later touched her on the leg and face, and said she could stay over at Bute House; she tells court “there was no way in hell” she was going to. She says the next day, she felt “like I’d had an awful nightmare”.
c. Shelagh McCall cross examining for the defence; she asks if Alex Salmond was a “touchy feely, tactile person”, who she had seen kissing members of the public? Woman J says yes. “That’s just the way he was?” Yes. McCall says Alex Salmond says the alleged incident where he acted out a zombie film “never happened”. You’re going to tell me it did? Woman J says “yes”. McCall asks if Woman J told the police that she didn’t feel like she’d been a victim of anything; she says yes – she says she was “blaming myself”. “I was really annoyed at myself” – she earlier said she wished she had insisted on working on the speech at the desk. McCall asking if Woman A & Woman H contacted Woman J after the Daily Record story broke; she says yes. Did Woman H encourage her to make a complaint? “No”. But she said she had a plan? J says “I suspected it was about speaking to the party” anonymously through a solicitor.
Lunch adjournment
d. Crown call Woman D – a civil servant. Alex Salmond is accused of sexually assaulting her on various occasions at Bute House, Holyrood and elsewhere. Woman D says it was a “fairly regular occurrence” for Alex Salmond to place his hand on her bottom when they were walking together. She says “it made me feel extremely uncomfortable”, and that it didn’t feel inadvertent. She says she “put up with” Alex Salmond allegedly touching her hair, her face, her arm, as “he was the leader of the country…i felt if I put in a complaint it would be my word against his and I was really concerned it would damage my career”. Woman D says she was in a car with Alex Salmond on a foreign trip, she dozed off and woke up with him stroking her face. She says she was “really shocked” and it made her feel “pretty icky”. She says on the same trip, she says Mr Salmond reached out to touch her face and her colleague “batted his hand away”, saying something like “what do you think you’re doing”. She says she was “utterly shocked and aghast”.
e. Cross examining for defence Gordon Jackson asks if Woman D had shown Alex Salmond a photo of herself in a “somewhat skimpy bikini”; she says he had asked to see her holiday pictures. Gordon Jackson says “I take it you don’t just take bikini photos?” Why that pic? D “I don’t know”
f. Next witness is civil servant colleague of Woman D – he says he was in the lift, and Alex Salmond “reached out to touch [woman D]’s hair and face, and I brushed his hand away”. He says Woman D “shrank back” and he acted “instinctively”, saying something like “behave yourself”.
g. In cross examination, Gordon Jackson says if Alex Salmond “was behaving inappropriately, he’s not doing it furtively in a corner, he’s doing it in front of a civil servant”. Witness agrees.
Court concludes for the week
Grouse Beater 