Driving instructor accused by pupils
AN instructor has gone on trial accused of a string of sex assaults on women learner drivers.
John Graham Jones, 63, from Macclesfield, is alleged to have inappropriately touched the nine complainants during driving lessons.
Mr Jones, of Delamere Drive, has denied 16 charges of sexual assault at a trial at Chester Crown Court.
The jury heard that Mr Jones runs John’s School of Motoring.
Opening the trial, prosecutor Myles Wilson said nine women claim that Mr Jones touched their thighs or breasts during lessons.
He said: “This defendant, while working as a driving instructor, is accused of touching up some of the females he was supposedly teaching to drive. He touched their thighs using his hands and brushed his hand against their breasts.
“The prosecution say he tried to get away with it by pretending that it was an accident, brushing against breasts as he adjusted a wing mirror or trying to be reassuring. But he did this too much and too many times to be explained away as an accident or innocent.”
The court heard that the first complainant contacted police after two alleged incidents.
Mr Wilson said: “She describes the defendant acting in an over familiar way, referring to the clutch as ‘the beast’. He began touching her thigh, not just once but regularly. It left her feeling uncomfortable. The prosecution say she felt so uncomfortable she didn’t know what to do, so she pretended it wasn’t happening. On another lesson he went a bit further, not only touching her thigh but when taking her upper arm allowed his fingers to touch her breast. He left it there for a few seconds. He made reference to spreading her legs so they wouldn’t touch the steering wheel. He called her names like honey bunny.”
The court heard that when Mr Jones was interviewed by police he told them he was ‘a touchy feely type of person’ and believed any contact was an accident.
Mr Wilson said: “This was sexual. It is just implausible that he could have accidentally touched the breasts of all these women. No one could be that clumsy.”
The jury was told that during the investigation two male pupils described ‘feeling uncomfortable’ when Mr Jones patted their knees.
“He says he is tactile and wanted to put them at ease. They were not left feeling at ease,” said Mr Wilson. The trial is being heard by Judge Roger Dutton and is expected to last until Friday.
Proceeding