This article is more than 7 months old

This article is more than 7 months old

Alex Salmond has appeared in court for a further hearing before his trial on 14 alleged sexual offences including an attempted rape.

The former first minister appeared at the high court in Edinburgh on Wednesday morning for a short procedural hearing before Lady Dorrian, the lord justice clerk, Scotland’s second most senior judge.

He is due to go on trial on 9 March on 14 charges of sexual assault against 10 women, including one of attempted rape and one of intent to rape while he was first minister and leader of the Scottish National party.

Salmond, 65, who sat between two security guards in the dock, has denied all the charges but made no comment in court. Dorrian adjourned the hearing until later on Wednesday.

After his first appearance on all 14 charges last November Salmond insisted he would clear his name.

Flanked then by his sisters Gail and Margaret, Salmond told reporters: “I’m innocent and will defend my position vigorously. But the only proper place to answer criminal charges is in this court and that’s exactly what we intend to do next spring.”

The attempted rape in 2014 and a separate assault with intent to rape in 2013 are alleged to have occurred in a bedroom at Bute House, the Georgian property in Edinburgh’s new town used as the official residence of Scotland’s first ministers.

In the attempted rape charge, he is accused of stripping off a woman’s clothes, pinning her against a wall and blocking her path, before forcing her on to a bed and trying to rape her.

The alleged offences cover a six-year period from June 2008 to November 2014, and include incidents alleged to have taken place at the Scottish parliament, in a ministerial car, at the Ubiquitous Chip restaurant in Glasgow and a nightclub in central Edinburgh.