A former teacher molested a young woman as she slept on a train after drinking at a Christmas party, a court heard.

The passenger awoke to find Chris McKenna with his hand between her legs and applying pressure with his fingers, it was alleged.

After the woman complained to the police, CCTV stills were circulated in the media and the 31-year-old former Sittingbourne Community College teacher came forward.

But he denied any sexual misconduct and claimed he had only been concerned about her welfare.

A jury at Maidstone Crown Court was told the woman had been at a party in London in December 2014 and caught a train from Victoria to Kent shortly before midnight.

She drank more than she usually did - about five glasses of wine - and fell asleep.

“She woke up much later in the journey to feeling somebody’s hand between her legs,” said prosecutor Allister Walker. “It was touching over her jeans.

"She woke up to feeling somebody's hand between her legs" - Prosecutor Allister Walker

“She looked up and saw a male hand grabbing at her crotch. She looked across to the left to see the defendant. She was shocked and startled.

“Her recollection is she grabbed her handbag and stood up saying she needed there and then to get off the train. She began to cry.”

When the train pulled into Faversham she realised she had gone several stops past her intended station. She got off the train and called her father and boyfriend.

A railway employee saw she was distressed and went to help her. She said she got off the train because a guy was touching her. Her father collected her and took her home.

Mr Walker said CCTV footage showed McKenna sitting away from the woman on the busy train but as it emptied he moved next to her.

“It shows him apparently touching her leg under the table,” he said. “He shrinks down in the seat rubbing his legs against hers.

“At one point we see the defendant holding her face in his hands. She is asleep throughout. If he was trying to help her, there was no need to touch her in the way he did.”

McKenna came forward and identified himself as the man in the stills. He said he had been travelling from Victoria to Teynham when he became concerned about the woman and tried to wake her.

He put his hands to her face to see if she was breathing, he said. Because she was slumping, he moved next to her, he added.

McKenna, of Morello Close, Teynham, denies two charges of sexual assault.

The trial continues.