Court convicts US political consultant of groping passenger

LONDON – A London court has found an American political consultant who worked on Ben Carson’s 2016 presidential campaign guilty of groping a fellow passenger on a trans-Atlantic flight last month.

Samuel Pimm was convicted of sexual assault Monday following a trial at Ealing Magistrates’ Court. He denied touching the passenger, who was seated next to him on the Washington to London flight.

Prosecutors said the 62-year-old Pimm consumed several alcoholic drinks before he put his hands on the woman.

The woman testified that she was trying to sleep when she felt Pimm touching her arm and breast, then moving toward her crotch. His lawyer suggested she might have been dreaming.

Pimm, of Virginia, was fined 720 pounds ($930) and ordered to pay 952 pounds ($1,231) in compensation and costs.