Alex Salmond appears at High Court in Glasgow over 14 sex assault charges including claim he ‘stripped naked and tried to rape woman in bed at his Bute House residence while SNP leader’
- Former First Minister, 65, denies the 14 charges in relation to 10 different women
- Offences are alleged to have taken place between 2008 and 2014
- He is at the High Court in Glasgow today with four-week trial to start in March
Former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond appeared at the High Court today to face a string of sex assault charges, including one of attempted rape.
Salmond, 65, was flanked by police officers as he entered Glasgow’s High Court for the preliminary hearing this morning.
He is accused of one count of attempted rape, one of sexual assault with intent to rape, 10 of sexual assault and two of indecent assault.
The charges, which he has ‘vigorously’ denied, relate to 10 different women and cover a time period from June 2008 to November 2014.
Former First Minister of Scotland is seen leaving the High Court in Glasgow after a preliminary hearing this morning
Former First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond is pictured arriving at the High Court in Glasgow for a preliminary hearing
Salmond is seen being escorted by police officers in Glasgow on Tuesday morning
The former MSP is accused of attempting to rape a woman at Bute House, the official residence of Scotland’s First Minister, during the independence referendum campaign.
Prosecutors allege he placed her legs over his, repeatedly kissed her face and neck, groped her then blocked her path.
He is then alleged to have pinned her against a wall, pulled at her clothes and stripped himself naked before trying to rape her on a bed.
The 65-year-old is also accused of sexually assaulting a woman with intent to rape in December 2013.
He is alleged to have forced a woman to lie on his bed at Bute House, lay on top of her, groped her, struggled with her and pulled up her dress with intent to rape her.
The first of the charges accuses Salmond of indecently assaulting a woman by allegedly kissing her mouth and groping her on various occasions around Glasgow between June 29 and July 24 2008.
The 65-year-old is pictured walking through the streets of Glasgow on Tuesday on the way to his preliminary court hearing
Salmond (pictured outside court today) has denied the 14 charges against him ahead of his trial in March
It is further alleged he sexually assaulted a woman on various occasions between May 2011 and June 2013 at the Scottish Parliament, Bute House and elsewhere by touching her bottom and stroking other parts of her body.
He is also accused of taking off a woman’s shoe and trying to kiss her foot in October 2013.
The indictment states that in September 2014, the month of the independence referendum, he grabbed a woman by her shoulders at Bute House, repeatedly kissed her face, tried to kiss her lips and touched her leg and face.
Several charges involve Salmond allegedly groping women, including one incident at the Ego nightclub in Edinburgh in December 2010 or 2011 and another at the Ubiquitous Chip restaurant in Glasgow in March 2012.
Details of today’s hearing, which follows two others in Edinburgh in November and January, cannot be reported for legal reasons.
Mr Salmond was First Minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014, before he resigned following the Scottish Independence referendum. A four-week trial is fixed for March.
The former MSP (pictured outside the High Court in Glasgow on Tuesday) is accused of attempting to rape a woman at Bute House, the official residence of the first minister of Scotland, during the independence referendum campaign
Salmond (seen outside Glasgow High Court today) has ‘vigorously’ denied the charges against him