A former Scottish Government official who has accused Alex Salmond of trying to rape her has told of how she wishes the former first minister had been “a better man”.
The witness, who can only be named as Woman H, revealed she had been “scared” to initially report the allegations, saying that Salmond was a “powerful man”.
But she said “flashbacks” sparked by media coverage of the shamed movie mogul Harvey Weinstein’s downfall and the Me Too movement in late 2017 had prompted her to come forward about two incidents alleged to have taken place in May and June, 2014.
Today was the second day of her evidence at the High Court in Edinburgh where Salmond faces 14 charges relating to 10 women – allegations he denies.
Woman H said she wishes she had “stood up and decked” the 65-year-old, who was in office at the time of the alleged offences, when he started kissing and touching her following a pursuit in Bute House.
She said she eventually agreed to spend the night in the building in an attempt to end the “chase” while stressing to Salmond she would sleep on a separate floor from him in the Connery Room – christened following a stay by the James Bond actor.
During cross-examination, defence counsel Shelagh McCall asked: “Your plan was to get into that bedroom, shut the door and phone Geoff Aberdein (a member of Salmond’s staff) to get him to call the first minister and tell him to go to his bed – something like that?”
Women H replied: “Yes.”
Mrs McCall asked: “Why not just ask security to come and put Mr Salmond to bed?”
Women H said: “I wish I had. But you have to remember part of the job was also 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 and was now forcefully trying it on with me over what felt like a long period.
“I wanted to deal with it privately, as we often did with Alex’s behaviour.”
She described herself as “frozen”, “internally screaming” and “scared” while the alleged attack took place, culminating in Salmond lying on top of her naked after he had removed her clothes, and his own.
She said: “I have these distressing images that play over and over and over again in my head. That’s what I have.”
Woman H alleges the attempted rape happened on June 13 in Bute House following a dinner with Salmond.
However, Mrs McCall suggested that she was never at the function – and that she had only learned of the event by reading Salmond’s book, The Dream Shall Never Die.
Woman H replied: “I wish for my life this was not true. I wish for my life I was not here (in court) today. I wish for my life the first minister had been nice and a better man.”
The former government official added she had not read Salmond’s book, saying it was considered a “joke”, adding that she had only checked to see if her name was mentioned in the index.
Messages were shown to the court by the defence team in which they stated Woman H had e-mailed Salmond in October, 2017, to ask him to appear at a charity fundraiser – telling him it would be “like the good old days”.
Salmond has lodged a special defence of alibi for the first of the two charges involving Woman H, which allegedly happened some time during May 2014 in Bute House.
Mrs McCall listed various events and functions Salmond attended during the month, involving Chinese dignitaries, businessman Richard Branson and Lloyds Banking Group as well various trips to his Aberdeenshire home in Strichen – revealing he spent 20 nights away from his official residence during the period.
Woman H replied: “There are a lot of dates in between, I would suggest.”
Earlier in the day, she told advocate depute Alex Prentice that she had been “cautious” about coming forward – explaining she wanted to feel “secure” and she was “scared” of doing so.
Mr Prentice asked: “Why did you want to feel secure?”
Woman H answered: “The first minister is a very powerful man. I didn’t want to get on the wrong side of him.”
She also told Mr Prentice that she had pulled out of attending an event with Salmond the following day on June 14 – revealing that within hours of e-mailing the former first minister’s staff in the morning to cancel she received a call from him sounding “perky” while he encouraged her to change her mind.
She said she told Salmond she could not go because of an injury – adding that the real reason was because of the “trauma” of the night before.
She said: “I felt like I wanted to throw up. I was distressed and didn’t want to be around him.”
The trial before judge Lady Dorrian continues.