Driving instructor had 12-inch carrot down his trousers

A driving instructor disguised a 12-inch carrot in his trousers to make a woman driver think she had given him an erection, a court has heard.

Stephen Cooney, 51, even grabbed the woman's hand to make her feel the vegetable before revealing it as part of a so-called joke.

The woman told Teesside Crown Court: "He said 'You've got me so excited', and I thought it was an erection. He said it was because my driving was so good."



"I was shocked, disgusted. I thought I had got hold of an erection. Then he pulled the carrot out from down his flies where it must have been throughout my lesson.
"I started to cry. When I got home I collapsed on the pavement. My legs went from under me."

Cooney, from Ronaldshay Terrace, Marske-by-the-Sea, Cleveland, is charged with sex assaults on three women pupils. He denies two indecent assaults and three sexual assaults. The case continues.