Alex Salmond trial: Jury sent home for the weekend

The jury in the Alex Salmond trial has been sent home for the weekend and will resume deliberations on Monday morning.

The former first minister denies 13 charges involving nine women, including sexual assault and attempted rape.

The jurors retired earlier on Friday afternoon to consider their verdicts.

The accusations span a period between June 2008 and November 2014 and range from the 65-year-old stroking a civil servant’s hair to trying to rape a former Scottish Government official in Bute House.

Judge Lady Dorrian told jurors they must decide whether the charges have been proven beyond reasonable doubt.

She explained there are three verdicts available – guilty, not guilty and not proven – the latter two both being verdicts of acquittal in the Scottish legal system.

Verdicts can be returned unanimously or by a majority, with at least eight of the 15 jurors needing to agree.

On Thursday, Salmond was described as a “sexual predator” who abused his position of power to satisfy his desires without punishment.

Crown prosecutor Alex Prentice QC told the High Court in Edinburgh the evidence shows the former first minister of Scotland had a “cohesive, compelling and convincing course of conduct”.

On Friday, Gordon Jackson QC, defending, suggested there was something “strange” about the allegations turning from being inappropriate to criminal, telling the jury the case “stinks”.

He said: “There’s something that does not smell right about the whole thing and you’re supposed to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the former first minister was, not an eejit or inappropriate, it was criminal – serious, serious matters.”