LONDON (AFP) – Danish golfer Thorbjorn Olesen grabbed a girl’s breast on a transatlantic flight after consuming alcohol and taking sleeping tablets, a London court docket heard on Monday (Dec 6).
The Ryder Cup winner, 31, can also be accused of pushing a member of cabin crew and urinating on one other passenger’s seat on the airplane from Nashville to London.
Olesen was on board with different professionals together with Englishmen Ian Poulter, 45, and Justin Rose, 41, following a event in Memphis.
He denies sexual assault, assault by beating and being drunk on an plane on July 29, 2019.
5-time European Tour winner Olesen, who lives in London, mentioned he had no reminiscence of his behaviour onboard the airplane after consuming alcohol and taking sleeping tablets, the jury was advised.
His barrister, Trevor Burke QC, prompt his shopper’s “weird behaviour” was because of the medicine, whose unwanted effects can embrace “sleep strolling” and “amnesia”.
A lady, who can’t be recognized as a result of she is an alleged sufferer of a intercourse offence, mentioned in a press release Olesen grabbed her hand and began to kiss it earlier than grabbing her on the breasts.
A member of the British Airways cabin crew, Sarah White, mentioned: “Through the flight Mr Olesen assaulted me and didn’t take heed to my directions,” she mentioned.
“By my 27 years of service, I’ve by no means come throughout such dangerous behaviour on board a flight.” Olesen was arrested after the airplane landed and advised police in interview he couldn’t bear in mind what occurred on board.
He mentioned he had taken melatonin pure sleeping tablets together with different sleeping tablets and had 5 – 6 drinks, together with crimson wine, beer and vodka with the intention to “knock himself out”.
Olesen was initially suspended by the European Tour in August in 2019.
Nonetheless, that ban was lifted in July 2020 because of the case being delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.
He has plummeted on this planet rankings over the previous two years from 62 on the time of the incident to 432.