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
Shelagh McCall asks why Woman H didn’t tell the security guard at Bute House about the alleged sex attack; she says she was “scared, embarrassed, humiliated” - “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.”
Shelagh McCall now asking why Woman H went upstairs during the alleged incident; she says she had to collect her things. “I was kicking myself that I didn’t have everything with me ... I had a sinking feeling in my stomach that I had to go back upstairs, but that’s what happened”
Shelagh McCall 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.
Shelagh McCall 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.”
Shelagh 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.”
Shelagh 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.”
Shelagh 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.
