Alex Salmond groped woman at nightclub, former SNP leader’s trial hears

The trial of Scotland’s former first minister Alex Salmond has heard that he groped a senior government official at a Christmas party.

The woman told the High Court in Edinburgh that he touched her breasts, waist and hips.

She said that at an Edinburgh nightclub in 2010 she’d taken Salmond to the centre of the dance floor and given him a microphone.

After he had addressed the gathering she went over to take the microphone from him but he ran his hands down her body and said to her: “You look good, you’ve lost weight.

Advocate depute Alex Prentice asked the woman, who can’t be named for legal reasons, whether she had agreed to be touched in that way and she replied: “Not at all,” adding that it made her feel “disgusted”.

She told the court that she wanted to get away from him. She said: “I remember taking him to one of the tables and just leaving him.”

She walked away to the bar and got a drink.

She said she did not tell anyone about it and added: “I kept my distance from him and continued to keep my distance from him.”

Mr Prentice asked if at any time she encouraged any of the things she described Salmond doing and she responded: “No, never.”

During cross-examination the woman confirmed to defence counsel Gordon Jackson QC that she regarded the incident at the Christmas party as groping. She said: “He touched my breasts, my waist, my hips.”

Mr Jackson said that in a succession of interviews with police there was not one mention of what the woman said had happened at the event.

The woman said she was surprised because she thought she had told the police.

The woman confirmed that she had been in contact with other complainers in the case.

She said: “I would not be encouraging people to make a complaint.” She said some asked for advice and added: “In every case I made it clear it was a decision for them to take.”

Salmond, 65, pleads not guilty to 14 charges involving 10 women, including one of attempted rape and one of sexual assault with intent to rape.

Another alleged victim, an SNP politician, told the court of a “surreally awful” moment when Salmond allegedly put his hand on her leg during a journey in his official car.

She sat in the back of a government car with Salmond while her husband was a passenger in the front. The married couple were being given a lift to a train station after a night out.

The woman told the court that Salmond put his hand on her leg, above her knee.

She said she felt embarrassed by it. She also said that she hoped he would move his hand but it stayed there until they got to the train station.

She said nobody noticed Salmond’s actions.

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’.”

She said she didn’t tell her husband about what happened as he was in a good mood at being able to get a ride in an official government car.

She said that her husband also admired Salmond and looked up to him.

She added: “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?”

Salmond has pleaded not guilty to all charges. His lawyers have lodged special defences of consent and alibi.

The trial, before Lady Dorrian, continues.

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