A BOOZED-UP vicar groped a student on a transatlantic flight after chatting to him about “titty bars”, a court heard yesterday.
Reverend Peter McConnell, 64, had downed up to ten small bottles of wine when he began making ”sleazy comments” to the 23-year-old.
He allegedly asked him whether he was “mischievous” and told him that masturbation was a way to relieve stress.
The Rev McConnell, vicar at St Helen’s Church, in Longhorsley, Northumberland, placed a blanket over the PhD student when he became tired on the overnight flight from Philadelphia to Heathrow in March 2017.
But as he drifted off to sleep he felt the vicar’s hand under the blanket groping his groin area, Newcastle crown court heard.
McConnell, who was travelling with his godson, is said to have asked his victim for forgiveness after the alleged sex assault.
Prosecutor Andrew Espley said: “Mr McConnell said his godson had got really drunk in South Carolina and had been to a titty bar.
“He asked the complainant if he had ever been to a titty bar. He said he hadn’t and felt uncomfortable about the conversation.
“It was an odd thing, you may think for anyone to say to a stranger on a flight but not as odd as what he was going to go on to say, at one point talking about masturbation and saying it was a way to relieve stress.
“As he was drifting off to sleep, he felt Mr McConnell’s hand under the blanket massaging his thigh.
“That lasted 10 to 15 seconds.
“He said he must have fallen asleep. He recalls jolting awake and when he did he looked down and could see Mr Connell’s hand had stopped groping his knee, thigh area and was rubbing his penis area, rubbing side to side, over the top of his pants.”
The student, who can’t be named for legal reasons, said he found some of McConnell’s conversation “really disgusting”.
He added that he was “shocked, disgusted and disturbed” after he was touched under the blanket.
The vicar denies sex assault. The trial continues.
