She said she “felt sick” at the nature of the complaints, one which particularly shocked her. Salmond insisted the allegation he had admitted to was a “misunderstanding”.
Mr Salmond, who publicly maintained his innocence, would later face trial on 14 charges of sexual assault. He was acquitted on 12 of the charges, while another was found not proven and one was dropped.
In a second extract from her forthcoming memoir ‘Frankly’, published by The Times newspaper, former First Minister Sturgeon said her failure to protect her old boss led to him ‘thirsting for revenge’, and that he was “determined” to destroy her afterwards.
Alex Salmond would later stand trial on 14 charges, mostly of sexual assault (Image: NQ) She writes: “In the dining room of my house in Glasgow on April 4, 2018, with just him and me across a table, Alex showed me a copy of the letter he had received from the Scottish government’s permanent secretary, Leslie Evans, informing him of the complaints against him.
“The substance of the complaints, one in particular, shocked me. I felt sick. After appearing to be upset and mortified by the allegations, Alex became cold.
“He effectively admitted the substance of one of the complaints, but claimed that it had been a “misunderstanding”, for which he had apologised at the time.”
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She adds: “He made it obvious that he considered the whole process to be illegitimate. He would later claim differently, of course, but it was evident that he wanted me to intervene and to stop the investigation in its tracks or divert it into some kind of siding.
“I knew that I shouldn’t do that. I didn’t realise it then, but this decision made the break-up of one of the most successful partnerships in modern British politics all but inevitable.”
Ms Sturgeon has already shared a first extract from her book, where she detailed her belief that her sexuality is not binary, her despair at the probe into the SNP’s finances which saw her and then-husband Peter Murrell arrested, and the heartache following her miscarriage in 2010.
In this second section, she goes over the behind-the-scenes breakdown of her relationship with Mr Salmond, and her grief at the end of their partnership.
Ms Sturgeon discusses the fallout from the botched investigation into the complaints carried out by the Scottish Government, which a judicial review launched by Salmond concluded had been “tainted with apparent bias” because the official who carried out the investigation had had contact with the complainers prior to the probe.
Alex Salmond later claimed that a “malicious and concerted” attempt to remove him from public life had occurred, in papers published ahead of his appearance at a Holyrood inquiry into the Scottish government’s mishandling of the investigation.
In her memoir, Ms Sturgeon rejects the conspiracy claim, saying it was impossible.
She writes: “In Alex’s narrative, he wasn’t just a victim any more, he was now a vindicated victim. It was also at this point that his animus towards me was cemented.
“He was reportedly furious that I hadn’t demanded the resignation of Leslie Evans. Leslie was the head of the civil service that had “botched” the process. It was not unreasonable to say that the buck stopped with her.
“But I knew that, for him, Leslie’s resignation was not about accountability. It was about vengeance. He wanted her punished for allowing him to be investigated in the first place. He would then have used her quitting as further “proof” that he had been a victim all along.”
She adds: “A conspiracy against Alex would have needed a number of women deciding to concoct false allegations, without any obvious motive for doing so.
“It would then have required criminal collusion between them, senior ministers and civil servants, the police and the Crown.
“That is what he was alleging. The “conspiracy” was a fabrication, the invention of a man who wasn’t prepared to reflect honestly on his own conduct. This is what I found hardest to come to terms with.”
