Woman ‘mortified’ after Salmond grabbed her buttocks during photo, court told
A former civil servant in the Scottish Government said she felt “mortified” and “demeaned” after Alex Salmond grabbed her buttocks during a photograph, a court has heard.
The woman told the High Court in Edinburgh on Friday that the pair had been posing for a photo at an event in Scotland in November 2014 when Salmond grabbed her “forcibly”.
The woman, known as Woman K, said she had been shocked but did not want to make a scene while the photo was being taken.
She added: “I think my heart stopped, my adrenaline started pumping a bit.
“It made me just mortified. I just wanted to do my job, I wanted to be proud of myself coming in and doing my job and it felt like I was demeaned, that it was unprofessional, that there was nothing I could do about it.”
The woman told the court it was not an accident but “very deliberate”.
She added: “I can see how hands might brush past places but this was very deliberate.”
Salmond, the former first minister of Scotland, is on trial over accusations of sexual assault, including an attempted rape.
The 65-year-old faces 14 charges of alleged offences against 10 women, all of which he has denies.
One attempted rape
11 sexual assaults
Two indecent assaults
The charges span a period between June 2008 and November 2014, with one sexual assault alleged to have taken place in the month of the Scottish independence referendum in September 2014.
Salmond’s lawyers previously lodged special defences of consent and alibi.
Consent was given as a defence for three alleged sexual assaults and an alleged indecent assault against three women.
The trial, before judge Lady Dorrian, continues.
