Woman 'feared for job after ex-council boss sex assault'

Mr Greenslade is alleged to have repeatedly groped a woman while she was working late

A woman who claims she was sexually assaulted by a former Liberal Democrat council leader said she did not report it because she feared for her job, a court has heard.

Brian Greenslade, 72, is on trial at Exeter Crown Court for two counts of indecent assault and one of sexual assault during the 1990s and 2000s.

The woman said she was in a small room when Mr Greenslade cornered and assaulted her.

The former Devon County Council leader has denied all the charges against him.

The woman was assaulted by Mr Greenslade, who was working as an accountant, while working late at a business in north Devon, the court was told.

She said she was using a photocopier when Mr Greenslade put an arm around her before repeatedly groping her.

Mr Greenslade was Devon County Council leader and a member of the Devon & Cornwall Police Authority

The court heard she did not tell senior managers because she knew Mr Greenslade, of Marwood, near Barnstaple, was a member of the Devon & Cornwall Police Authority and she feared making a complaint could affect her job prospects.

She said: "I never spoke to him about it or reported it. It wasn't done in those days. You did not talk about these things.

"It would not have got me anywhere and I had a mortgage to pay. He was higher up than me and was on the police authority."

The court also heard from another woman who claimed he groped her breast during a lunch reception at County Hall in Exeter in the mid-2000s.

She told the court she "just looked at him and said quietly and firmly: 'Move your hand or I'll break your fingers.'"

She described being so shocked that she was "terrified of what was going on" and "felt as if the air had been sucked out of the room".

The trial continues.