A POLICE officer squeezed a woman's breast after drinking 16 pints on a day trip with work colleagues, a misconduct hearing has heard.

PC Ralph Bainbridge, of Cleveland Police, was on a pub crawl in York last year, when he is alleged to have put his arm around a woman's waist and another over her shoulder.

He is then said to have touched and squeezed her breast during the incident, which happened whilst he was off-duty.

The alleged victim told the officer he was "lucky" she hadn't "punched you in the f*****g throat."

PC Bainbridge denies the allegations.

A police misconduct hearing at The Grand Hotel in Hartlepool yesterday heard that PC Bainbridge had been inside a pub when he approached the woman from behind and put his arms around her.

The woman then told a number of people about what had happened.

One of those she reported the incident to told the hearing she had said "he touched me", and made a gesture of touching her breasts with her hands.

PC Bainbridge claims he "only went in for a friendly cuddle" and "brushed" the victim's breast, but did not intentionally squeeze it.

He later tried to apologise to the woman, but she said she "didn't want to speak to him again".

Dijen Basu, representing Cleveland Police, said even though he was off-duty, PC Bainbridge was still expected to abide by his employer's code of conduct.

He said the officer had consumed 15 to 16 pints and was speaking to others during the trip about relationship problems.

Giving evidence, the victim said "she wasn't sick or hungover" and could remember the incident, despite also drinking that day.

"I am aware of how much I can handle – I wasn't intoxicated and I could walk and talk.

"I felt someone standing close behind me. One arm went round the right side of my waste, and the other arm went over my left shoulder.

"He cupped my right breast, then squeezed - it lasted no more than a second."

Ailsa Williamson, representing PC Bainbridge, asked the victim if she had been "accidentally" touched, which the victim replied "no".

Asked why, the victim replied: "Because of his reaction, he did not react, he would have apologised immediately after".

The hearing heard the woman had been "extremely upset and distressed" and "looked like she'd been crying" after the incident.

According to Mr Basu, PC Bainbridge is expected to claim the incident was "all a terrible accident and he did not mean to touch her breast".

The hearing continues.