Wednesday 11 July 2018

Boozy Rolls Royce Union Rep Denies Groping Hotel Woman

A Rolls-Royce union rep climbed into bed with a drunken married woman at a hotel conference and fondled her between her legs, a court heard yesterday.

Toolmaker Jon Brough, 46, who consumed ten pints during the evening, told police the woman had been flirting with him and sitting on his lap before they retired to her room at midnight.

Brough, of Winterley Drive, Accrington, Lancashire, who works at the company’s Barnoldswick site has pleaded not guilty at Inner London Crown Court to assault by penetration at Surrey’s Esher Place Hotel on October 4, 2016.

Prosecutor Catherine Patterson told the jury Rolls Royce funded a free open bar for an hour before the Unite Union dinner and the woman, 46, consumed more alcohol at a local pub, after which she remembers nothing until the next morning.

“She remembers waking up in the morning with her jeans unzipped, her bra unclipped and this defendant laying next to her.

“She sent a text reading ‘help’ to a colleague after realising that something had happened.

“She was shocked at seeing this defendant there and said: ‘You need to f*** off.’

“He replied: ‘You’ve sobered up’ and dressed and left the room.”

Hours earlier Brough and a colleague had escorted her to the room, with the other man recalling the defendant saying: “C’mon. This party hasn’t finished yet.”

Ms. Patterson explained: “She consumed a considerable quantity of alcohol. She was so intoxicated she did not have the ability to consent to any sexual activity.

“Mr. Brough could see she was in a state of intoxication and decided to take advantage.”

After returning home the complainant reported him to the police two weeks later and Brough was questioned in Manchester on December 20, 2016.

“He admitted putting his finger into her vagina, but said she had consented to doing that.

“He said she was very drunk, siting on people’s laps, including his. He had seen her fall off a chair and saw her laughing and giggling and thought they would go back to her room for sex.”

Brough told the officers: “There was sexual activity. Mutual kissing and passionate touching.”

Ms Patterson added: “He also told police he had tried to pull her knickers and trousers down, but she would not allow it and in the morning seemed angry with herself.”

A colleague of the complainant described her as having “slurred speech,” “staggering about” and “looking very drunk.”

Another saw her chatting with Brough in a corridor. “He says she appeared to be leaning on him and another witness says they were in reception with their arms around each other.”

The next morning a concerned colleague confronted Brough. “He shrugged his shoulders and said it was just some drunken flirting and she wouldn’t need the pill.”

In a police video interview played to the jury the woman said she recalled drinking three pints of cider, a glass of wine and a vodka and coke that night.

“I got very drunk, very quickly,” she told the trial, recalling at one point she spilled alcohol over herself.

“I remember waking up and I was still in clothes. My jeans were unzipped and my bra unclipped.

“I don’t know how he got there. I was shocked to see him there and said: ‘F*** off.’

“I don’t know what happened, I panicked, I was stressed and felt really ashamed of myself. I’m married.

“I think there was blood on the sheet and that concerned me. I thought: ‘what’s happened here?’

“Later I read a news report about ‘too drunk to consent’ and I thought: ‘Hello. That’s what happen to me. It’s not my fault.’

“Something’s happened and it’s not my fault. I don’t even remember talking to him, that’s why I’m shocked he got there.”

Trial continues…………..

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