On the second day of the criminal trial of Alex Salmond, a woman has told the court that she was 'scared' to come forward with her allegations of sexual assault against Scotland’s former First Minister.
'I was trying to work out if there was a process in the party because I was confused and scared and wanted to be secure about talking to anyone before I did so,' the accuser, known as Woman H, told the court, as reported by the BBC. 'The first minister was a very powerful man and I didn't want to get on the wrong side of him.'
Salmond is facing multiple charges of sexual assault, including one of attempted rape, at the High Court in Edinburgh where several alleged victims are expected to give evidence over the next few weeks.
The ex-politician has entered not guilty pleas for a total of 14 sexual assaults on 10 women, alleged to have happened during his tenure as First Minister and leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP).
On Tuesday, Woman H, a former Scottish government official, detailed the allegations against Salmond which she first raised at the height of the #MeToo movement after getting 'flashbacks.'
She claims the former politician sexually assaulted her at the first minister's official Bute House residence in Edinburgh in May 2014, and a month later, attempted to rape her at the same location.
Woman H claims during the latter incident, alleged to have taken place in June 2014, Salmond 'pounced on her,' removed her clothes off, forced her onto a bed and, despite her protests, lay naked on top of her.
The accuser says that though she let a colleague know that she would not attend an event the next day with the First Minister, using an old arm injury as an excuse, she was reluctant to give further details about the alleged assault because she was still 'in shock' and confused.
'I didn't communicate to anyone that I had been assaulted,' Woman H said. 'I asked a friend and colleague if anything had ever happened to her because I was trying to figure out whether this was a one-off like a drunken mistake due to the pressure of the campaign and he (Mr Salmond) had just gone off the rails.
'I've done this off my own bat. This isn't fun, I'd rather not be here.'
'I was trying to make sense of what on earth had happened. I didn't go into the details of it.'
It wasn’t until the #MeToo movement rose to prominence in 2017 that Woman H thought about reporting her accusations to the SNP. The media attention triggered ‘flashbacks’ in her memory and she believed that the time was now to raise her concerns.
'These issues started to be discussed and I started to have what I could describe as flashbacks,' Woman H said. 'I started to come to the realisation at the October/November 2017 period. I thought I would call a staff member at SNP HQ who had been dealing with these issues, Ian McCann. I might have texted him first.'
Woman H was asked if anyone had pushed her to make the allegations against Salmond.
She said: 'I've done this off my own bat. This isn't fun, I'd rather not be here.'
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