Sex assault charge politician ‘told victim he’d grope anything’

A DUP councillor charged with sexually assaulting a nursing colleague told the alleged victim he would “grope anything”, a court heard yesterday.

Former Ballymoney mayor Ian Stevenson (49) is accused of squeezing the woman’s breast after asking for a hug at a care home in Co Antrim last April.

Stevenson (right), who categorically denies any wrongdoing, has since been dismissed from his nursing post.

The alleged victim told Belfast Magistrates’ Court that the incident took place in a corridor.

She claimed that after he requested a hug, the defendant, from Headlands Avenue in BalThe lymoney, grabbed her breast and “actually squeezed” it, after which she told him “no” and pushed him away. She added that the encounter had left her shocked and frightened.

“He just basically tried to laugh it off and made the joke, ‘You know me, I would grope anything... well, not anything’,” the woman said.

The court heard the alleged victim sent Stevenson a Facebook message expressing her “disgust” at what is said to have happened. But defence counsel put it to her that the allegations were inconsistent and false, insisting that it was “completely unbelievable” that Stevenson, as a “councillor, a public figure, a nurse of 22 years’ standing” would carry out such an assault in his workplace.

defendant, a representative on Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council, has reportedly been suspended by the DUP pending the outcome of the case.

He claimed it was the woman who offered him a hug when he said he was going to lay a wreath on a friend’s grave.

“I didn’t think I would end up in a court of law on account of a hug,” he added.

Questioned about his alleged comments to the woman, he denied that he would say anything like that.

Stevenson also disclosed during the hearing that he was to challenge at a tribunal his dismissal from his nursing position.

The judge said she wanted to reserve judgment on the sexual assault charge, explaining that she wanted time to consider all evidence.