A woman guest on the first sailing of a ferry service told a court how she was indecently assaulted by a police officer who grabbed her breasts and crotch.

Lewes Crown Court heard free champagne flowed on the outward journey of the SeaCat II service in April 1999, from Newhaven to Dieppe.

The 33-year-old married mother-of-two alleges she was assaulted by Detective Constable Brent Beckett, 40, on the return journey.

The Sussex detective denies the charge.

Nick Lobbenberg, defending, said there were 200 people on board the vessel, which included all the "great and good of Sussex".

The woman told the jury she had had three glasses of champagne throughout the day in which she had spent chatting to fellow passengers.

On the return trip she saw a friend who nodded at her to come over and join his conversation because one of the women he was talking to was "having a bit of trouble with a male".

She said she noticed the man was wearing a Sussex Police badge and she knew his name was Brent. She said that he had been drinking and was "totally oblivious" to the conversation with the group.

The court heard she started talking to him about needing to spend more time with her children and he replied: "That is what women are for."

She said at one point he tried to put his arms round her female friend and she told him to go away.

She said she and her friend went to get a coffee from the cafeteria and because she felt he needed to be sobered up.

She stood next to him in an area next to the coffee queue and told the court:

"As we were waiting he was putting his hands over my bottom. I felt uneasy, I tried to move away from him.

"As I walked past he put his left hand on my right breast. I pushed it away. I said 'I do not want anything like this'."

The court heard he then grabbed her left breast and she again pushed his hand away.

She said: "His left hand went between my legs and stroked my trousers. It was a very upward movement."

She said the detective constable told her: "Come on, you know it is what you want."

The woman said in cross examination that she then went upstairs to the first class area where she found her friends.

She told the jury that she was shocked and did not mention what had happened as many of her friends were feeling the worse for wear because they had been drinking and the crossing was fairly rough.

The next day, she made a complaint to police at Seaford and was then interviewed at her home by a detective inspector two weeks later.

The trial continues.