Ex-Conservative MP Charlie Elphicke asked a woman about bondage before he “basically jumped” on her, a court has heard.

The woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, described to Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday how Elphicke groped her at his home in central London in 2007.

The alleged victim had rejected Elphicke’s advances moments earlier as they shared a £40 bottle of wine, with the politician’s children asleep upstairs and his wife Natalie away on business, a jury was told.

Giving evidence via video link, the woman told the court: “He started talking about what we [the alleged victim and her boyfriend] liked in a sexual way.

“I sort of wagged my finger at him and said ‘We don’t need to talk about that kind of thing’.

“He was like a totally asexual person, to me. He started saying ‘Do you like silk and leather?’ and bondage.

“He was jovial, jokey, excited maybe, in an animated way. I was just thinking ‘Oh god, how embarrassing’.”

The court heard the woman describe how the conversation continued for “a couple of sentences” before Elphicke “basically jumped” on her.

She said: “He tried to kiss me and I moved my head, he pushed me down by my shoulders, he had his knee between my legs and he was groping my breast.”

The witness said she told Elphicke to “get off” and she ran away.

“I just thought ‘I’ve got to get out of here’,” she told the jury.

“My adrenaline was going. I was just shocked – really, really shocked.

“I never thought in a million years that he was that kind of person, that he would do anything like that.”

She said Elphicke then “pursued” her around his home as she moved away.

“He was saying really bizarre things that are embarrassing like ‘I’m a naughty Tory’,” she added.

“He was trying to grope me and trying to grab my bum. He was following me, it was like a race.

“I couldn’t understand what was happening.”

The alleged victim told the court she managed to get away from Elphicke and got into a taxi.

“I was feeling really shocked and scared… the whole thing was really embarrassing and odd and scary,” she said.

Elphicke denies three counts of sexual assault against two women, between 2007 and 2016.

He was elected as MP for Dover in 2010 and held the seat until standing down at December’s general election.

His wife Natalie succeeded him as MP for the constituency.

The trial continues.

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