A former leader of Devon County Council has been found guilty of sexually assaulting three women in separate incidents in the 1990s and 2000s.

Brian Greenslade was convicted by a jury at Exeter Crown Court despite denying any inappropriate behaviour and dismissing one allegation as absolute nonsense.

Greenslade groped the three women in separate incidents, two of them while on council business and one while working as an accountant.

One victim told how he thrust his hand down her trousers as they left a site visit for a planning application in Cullompton in 1995.

Another said he brushed his hand over her breast while they were both working at an office in Barnstaple at around the same time.

The last said Greenslade ‘copped a feel’ of her breast after putting his arm around her at a lunchtime reception at County Hall in Exeter 2005 and 2006.

She told him that she would break his fingers if he did not move his hand and a photograph taken just moments later showed her looking displeased.

The women all said they did not report the assaults at the time because of his positions of power and influence as leader of Devon County Council, a member and chairman of the Devon and Cornwall Police Authority, and a prominent Liberal Democrat.

Greenslade, aged 72, of Longpiece, Marwood, near Barnstaple, denies two counts of indecently assault and one of sexual assault.

He said he had no recollection of the alleged encounters but was sure they had never happened. He claimed his diaries showed he had not been at a site meeting.

The jury found him guilty after deliberating for less than two hours.

Judge Timothy Rose has adjourned sentence until later in the day.