It reported that late one night in December 2013 at Edinburgh’s Bute House, the first minister’s official residence, a female civil servant was alone with him after an official engagement at which he had been drinking alcohol. He is alleged to have instructed her to move from a public room to his bedroom and to have repeatedly offered her alcohol despite her refusals. [J4MB: He “instructed” her to move to his bedroom? If her account is accurate, why did she comply?]

Salmond is then accused of telling the woman to get in the bed before lying on top of her, caressing her and touching her sexually on her breasts and bottom through her clothes. [J4MB: Whoa! Hold it right there!!! He “told” her to get into his bed? Ah, that evil tactic used so effectively by patriarchs over the ages, which women are helpless against. If her account is accurate, she evidently got into his bed. What was she expecting him to do next? Produce a chess set? Pitiful. Truly pitiful.] The complaint is said to allege that he only stopped after she repeatedly asked him to.

A statement on Salmond’s behalf yesterday said he intends to make no further comment on the issues until his petition for judicial review is heard in the court of session. It added that he “refutes these complaints of impropriety and absolutely denies any suggestion of criminality”.

The claims emerged after a high-level review was ordered last year by Salmond’s successor and one-time protégée Nicola Sturgeon. It examined how the Scottish government dealt with complaints of sexual harassment after a series of parliamentary scandals.

Sturgeon and Salmond have been close allies for more than 20 years, with her once describing him as the “mentor” she looked up to. Having served as his deputy, she took over as first minister when he resigned after losing the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.

Relations have since become strained as Salmond has struggled to carve out a role outside frontline politics.

After losing his Westminster seat last year he angered Sturgeon and other party colleagues by agreeing to make a weekly show for the Russian broadcaster RT, which is regarded as a mouthpiece for Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president.

Sturgeon has said she first learnt of the allegations of impropriety made by civil servants in January. A number of women have since accused Salmond of being “overfamiliar” with them.

Moira MacDiarmid said on Twitter that she and other female stewards at the Ayr racecourse had once felt “uncomfortable” when Salmond rubbed their shoulders — in her case “hard enough to dislodge the shoulder strap of my bra which was under a blouse and a padded jacket”.

Others claimed they had been hugged or kissed on the lips, despite barely knowing him. Salmond did not respond to these claims.

On Friday Scotland’s top civil servant wrote to all Scottish government staff encouraging anyone who had experienced harassment to come forward in confidence.

While Salmond’s charm and wit won over many on the campaign trail, civil servants privately nicknamed him “the First Monster” because of a temper that left some feeling uncomfortable about working with him.

Salmond has never before faced allegations in print of being unfaithful to Moira, his 81-year-old wife, who is 17 years his senior. She was his boss when they met in the former Scottish Office in the late 1970s.

He has been noted for enjoying women’s company, however, especially in photo opportunities on the campaign trail. He once said his wife was not pleased by a photo of him letting a student, 17, lick his ice cream lolly.

He is still a colleague of Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, a former SNP MP who works on his RT show and was pictured with him in a hot-air balloon. [J4MB: TA-S won our Toxic Feminist of the Month award in 2016, after she’d made some remarks about J4MB during her talk in the House of Commons during Philip Davies’s International Men’s Day debate.]

Salmond’s broadcasting career has not taken off so smoothly. Now, having prepared legal action against the SNP government as he fights the battle of his life, his hopes of a political comeback are — for the time being at least — grounded.