Scots teacher admits drinking 'excessive amounts of alcohol' on night she allegedly kissed and groped pupil

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A Scots teacher has admitted drinking "an excessive amount of alcohol" on the night she allegedly kissed and groped a pupil.

Ashley McConnell said she visited several bars and was ordering two drinks at a time as well as shots during a night out in Thurso, Caithness, with friends in March 2018.

The physics teacher, who taught at Thurso High School, then went to a local nightclub, Skinandi's, where she is alleged to have danced in a sexualised manner with a pupil.

It is also alleged whilst there Miss McConnell, who was 30 at the time, kissed the 17-year-old "three or four times", touched his bottom and groin and held hands with him.However, Miss McConnell, also known as Ashley Swanson, yesterday said she drank so much she can't remember everything from that night.The mum-of-two, who was married at the time, remembers the pupil standing in front of her but can't recall if more happened due to the amount of alcohol she drank.Referring to the pupil she allegedly kissed as Pupil A, she said: "I do have a recollection of Pupil A standing in front of me and I remember spending parts of the night with [a former pupil she tutored]."It had probably been about three years since I taught him."He was in my S1 class and S3 class, I knew him and he was recognisable to me."There was nothing out of the ordinary, he was just in my class that I shared in S1 and S3."I can't remember the content of the conversation [on the night]."That was the truth, my recollection of the evening was not clear, nothing really in detail."I don't remember dancing with him but that isn't to say I didn't dance with him."I also don't remember some of the other stuff which might have happened but that was me just trying to be as honest as I could be."I feel it