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- Ryder Cup winner Thorbjørn Olesen allegedly
grabbed a woman’s breast on a BA flight after drinking
alcohol and taking sleeping pills, a court has heard. 
<u>The golfer, 31, consumed two</u>
glasses of red wine with a sushi platter meal,
one vodka and cranberry juice, champagne and prescription pills before boarding the BA
plane from Nashville to London‘s Heathrow in 2019. 
Today a court heard how Olesen ran around the cabin ‘like a little boy’, was unable to operate the
toilet door, and became verbally abusive to cabin crew when challenged.
He allegedly pushed
one BA worker, kissed another’s hand before making the sign of the
cross, and touching a woman’s breast.
<span italic;”>He was eventually led back to</span>
<span 600;”>his first-class seat, where he</span> fell asleep, but later urinated on another passenger’s
seat, the jury was told.
Olesen, of Chelsea, west
London, denies sexual assault, assault by beating and being drunk on an aircraft on July
29 2019.    <div class=“artSplitter mol-img-group” ><div class=“mol-img”> <div class=“image-wrap”> ” > </div> <noscript> <img > </div><div class=“clear”></div>Golfer Thorbjørn Olesen (pictured outside court with his partner today) allegedly grabbed a woman’s breast on a BA flight after drinking alcohol and taking sleeping pills, a trial at central London’s Aldersgate House Nightingale Court has
heard</div><span 800;”>Giving evidence today, he told</span>
the jury he would never ‘consciously’ risk his career by committing a crime and has no memory of the flight after taking sleeping pills.
Asked by his
barrister, Trevor Burke QC, about the allegations, Olesen said:
‘I felt absolutely horrible and I was very sorry.

<span underline;”>I could not believe
what they</span> were saying what happened.
<span oblique;”>‘I was just embarrassed and</span> felt horrible.’
Olesen was on board the flight
with other professionals including Ian Poulter and Justin Rose following the
World Golf Championships-FedEx St Jude Invitational in Memphis when the alleged incident took place.
He said he
had not slept well for weeks, having played several big tournaments,
including the Open, and planned to go straight to sleep on the plane.
The golfer said he drank two beers, two glasses of red wine
with a sushi platter meal on board a private jet, and one vodka and
cranberry juice before boarding the flight.<div><div data-track-module=“am-related_carousel^related_carousel” data-track-selector=”.rotator-panels a:not([class*=external])” data-dm-rotator-rotate=“false” data-track-pos=“static” data-preferred-shared-network-enabled=”” data-dm-rotator-auto-init=”” id=“p-20” class=“related-carousel with-fb-or-tw news half” data-dm-rotator-active-class=“active” data-dm-rotator-page-count=“1.0” data-dm-social-article-auto-init=”” data-dm-rotator-page-size=“1”> <div class=“rotator bdrcc”> <div class=“rotator-title”>

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</div> </div>And he took two melatonin tablets,
which he regularly uses to combat jet lag,
along with two Ambien Buy/Buy Zolpidem Online Pharmacy pills put into his bag by his partner, Lauren Zafer, an accountant at
PricewaterhouseCoopers.
<span bolder;”>Olesen said he would ‘never’</span> <span bold;”>have
taken the pills had he</span> known they were prescription-only or that side-effects included ‘sleep walking’ and
‘amnesia’.
He said he ‘felt fine’ as he boarded the plane and was handed a drink,
adding: ‘My last memory is getting a glass of champagne
and sitting down in my seat and I think I remember taking off.’
Olesen said he had no recollection of asking for
a vodka and cranberry juice, drinking pink champagne from another passenger’s glass, or getting
trapped in the toilet.
After taking the pills Olesen said his memory became blurred.
‘I think I remember taking off, I’m not 100 per
cent sure,’ he said. 
<span italic;”>He also denied remembering</span> being
abusive to cabin crew, touching a woman’s breast or
urinating on another passenger’s seat.
‘The first thing I remember is police coming into
my seat,’ he said. 
‘I felt a bit all over
the place.

I was very confused and I think in shock mostly.’<div class=“artSplitter mol-img-group” > <div class=“mol-img”> <div class=“image-wrap”> “” /
</div> <noscript> <img id=“i-8387e795089bf158” height=“633” width=“634” alt=“The Ryder Cup winner (pictured sitting on another BA flight) was on a  plane from Nashville to London Heathrow in 2019 when the alleged incident took place” class=“blkBorder img-share” > </noscript> </div> The
Ryder Cup winner (pictured sitting on another BA flight) was on a  plane from Nashville to London Heathrow in 2019 when the alleged incident took place</div>Olesen said
his partner, with whom he has one child, later told him she had
experienced incidents, including vacuuming their
whole house and eating Christmas chocolates without remembering, after taking the pills for insomnia.
He said:
‘After the arrest and speaking to police, my girlfriend questioned me a lot.

I told her that I took sleeping pills.
‘She started feeling a bit guilty
and scared. She said you have to take one [pill].
‘She told me that she
started taking one and then two after some time.
‘She told
me later a couple of examples [of curious behaviour].’ 
Giving evidence, Ms Zafer told how her partner
looked ‘like the world had just ended’ and ‘slightly confused’ after he was released by police. 
She said
she felt ‘quite horrified’ by the allegations and realised he must
have taken the sleeping pills she left in his washbag after Olesen said he
could not remember what happened. 
<u>‘My stomach turned inside out</u> because I knew
how they must’ve been the Ambien Buy and how strong they were, and I felt
immense guilt,’ she said.       
Mr Burke asked the
golfer: ‘Had you known she had some adverse reaction to
the tablets would you have taken them at all?’
‘No, I wouldn’t,’ he responded.   
<span oblique;”>Mr Burke explained that the</span> <span underline;”>golfer was running the
defence</span> of ‘automatism’. 
He said the combination of Zolpidem
and alcohol could have caused Olesen to behave in the alleged way
on the flight, and that he would have had no control or memory over his actions. 
<span bold;”>The court heard that,</span> following his arrest, Olesen lost lucrative sponsorship deals with firms including
Nike, BMW, Rolex and Titleist, and was suspended from the European and World
Tours.
<span oblique;”>He has
temporarily been</span> reinstated to the European Tour pending the outcome of
the trial but has struggled for form and has plunged to
440th in the world rankings.
He said:
‘I think it’s been very difficult to concentrate and play when you don’t know if you have
ruined your career and maybe never play professional golf again.’
Questioned by prosecutor Max Hardy, Olesen denied he was ‘in a party mood’ when he boarded the flight and said he
had ‘definitely not’ taken the pills with alcohol ‘for
fun’.
‘I wanted to try to sleep all the way to London. I wasn’t thinking about partying or anything,’ he told the court. <div class=“artSplitter mol-img-group” > <div class=“mol-img”> <div class=“image-wrap”> ” > </div> <noscript> <img > </div>
The golfer (pictured during the second round of the World Golf
Championship)  said he felt ‘horrible and embarrassed’ while giving evidence</div><div class=“artSplitter mol-img-group” ><div class=“splitLeft”><div class=“mol-img”> <div class=“image-wrap”> ” > </div> <noscript> “” / </div> <noscript>
<img id=“i-64460a20e52fff79” height=“558” width=“305” alt=“Justin Rose” class=“blkBorder img-share” > </noscript> </div></div><div class=“clear”></div>English golfers
Ian Poulter (left) and Justin Rose (right) were also passengers on the BA flight from Nashville
to London</div><div class=“artSplitter mol-img-group” > <div class=“mol-img”> <div class=“image-wrap”> ” > </div> <noscript> <img > </div> Olesen pictured during the third round of the World Golf Championships on July
27, 2019</div>Olesen said he did not know if any other golfers had
any pills on the flight after a witness described a group gathered round him with ‘brightly coloured’ tablets. 
Mr Hardy asked: ‘Did you take any more pills on that
flight?’
<u>Olesen said:
‘I don’t</u> remember, I don’t know,’ and denied that he was
‘drunk.’
The barrister suggested: ‘It
was your choice what drinks you had that day…

<span bolder;”>and you chose what pills
to</span> take as well, and I suggest when you took those pills you just didn’t care about what effect they may have on you?’
<span 600;”>Olesen replied:
‘Yes, I did</span> care. I thought they were going to make me sleep all the way to
London.’
The trial continues.</div>
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