Former student tells court she '˜dreaded' going to driving lessons with tutor accused of sexual assault

The woman, who started learning to drive with instructor Keith Warner when she was 18, said that she had earlier shrugged off a comment about her cleavage.

She told the jury at Lincoln Crown Court that Warner would give her hugs and touch her during lessons.

“I was starting to dread the times I was going to driving lessons.

“There was the odd comment about how I didn’t used to have any cleavage on show. I was very shocked and surprised because I wasn’t expecting it. I just shrugged it off.

“The comment that really set me aside was about how if I offered sex he would.

“It was on the lines of ‘If you offered, I would give you one’.”

Another woman, who began to have lessons with Warner a week after her 17th birthday, told the jury that he kissed her as she was driving.

“I was going down the road at about 50 mph. He was rubbing my thigh and he lent over and kissed my arm. This was while the vehicle was moving.”

The woman said that Warner also hugged her and stroked her knee during lessons.

She said she quit with him after four lessons.

Under cross-examination it was suggested to her that her evidence was not true but she responded “It definitely is true”.

Keith Warner, 61, of Outgate, Leverton, near Boston, denies 11 charges of sexual assault involving five different female pupils of his driving school. The charges relate to dates between 5 January 2015 and 25 April 2017.

The trial continues.