Alex Salmond arriving for his trial at the High Court in Edinburgh today. He denies all charges

Alex Salmond stripped naked and lay on top of a Scottish government official after a dinner at the first minister’s residence, a court was told.

The woman said that she felt “hunted” by Mr Salmond, who was then the first minister of Scotland and leader of the SNP, during an alleged incident in which he is accused of trying to rape her.

On the first day of his trial over accusations of sexual assault, the woman, who is no longer an official, claimed that he “full-on pounced” on her after an evening of drinking at a dinner at his official residence, then stripped off her clothes and pushed her on to a bed.

By then, she told the court, he was naked. She described finding