Alex Salmond to stand trial on sex assault charges

Former First Minister Alex Salmond denies all allegations against him. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

The trial of former first minister Alex Salmond over a string of sexual assault claims will get under way today.

The ex-SNP leader will be in the dock at the High Court in Edinburgh to face 14 allegations, including sexual assault and attempted rape, against ten women. He denies all the charges.

The case is expected to last four weeks.

A 15-member jury will have the option of finding the former first minister guilty, not guilty or not proven.

The last two verdicts would see him acquitted.

All the offences are alleged to have happened when Salmond, now 65, was first minister and are said to have occurred at locations including his official Bute House residence and the Scottish Parliament.

The alleged attempted rape is said to have happened in June 2014 at Bute House in Edinburgh’s Charlotte Square.

He is alleged to have pinned a woman against a wall and to have removed her clothes and his own, before pushing her onto a bed and lying naked on top of her.

Because the trial involves allegations of sexual offences, the identities of the alleged victims cannot be revealed in reporting of the trial.

Salmond, who has continued to host his weekly show on RT, is being defended by Gordon Jackson, the Dean of the Faculty of Advocates and a former Labour MSP.

He is one of the country’s most senior criminal defence lawyers and famously acted for a three-year-old dog called Woofie in 1988 that faced being destroyed for allegedly biting a postman.

French screen legend Brigitte Bardot joined the campaign to save the dog, which was eventually reprieved.

Alex Prentice, one of the country’s top prosecutors, will lead the case against Salmond. He has been involved in many high-profile prosecutions in Scotland over the past decade and was responsible for

leading the case against former MSP Tommy Sheridan, who was convicted of perjury in 2010.

The case will be presided over by Lady Dorrian.

She is Lord Justice Clerk and is the first woman in 692 years to be appointed to the role.

She has been a High Court judge for the past 15 years, having been appointed by Lord McConnell.