A CARE manager has admitted sharing a “passionate kiss” with a teenage boy in the early 1990s while denying broader accusations of historical sexual abuse, a court heard.

Donna Bentley (53) is alleged to have committed four counts of procuring an act of gross indecency and two counts of indecent assault against a boy under the age of 16 in the early 1990s.

Giving evidence in the Royal Court yesterday, Ms Bentley said she had kissed the complainant – who she then believed to be 16-or-17-years-old – while under the influence of both alcohol and cannabis.

“After that, I have no recollection of any intimacy that happened between us,” she told Advocate Frances Littler, defending.“It’s difficult to remember. I just remember being embraced, and we had our arms sort of connected around each other.

“I don’t recall anything further happening that night, and I just crashed out on the bed – that is all I recall.”

Ms Bentley was then asked by her lawyer to describe her intoxication level on a scale of one to 10.

“About an eight”, the defendant replied, before adding: “My memory so vague – I can remember certain things about the night but I can’t account for everything.”

She told the court that she remembered being “embarrassed” and “worried that she had overstepped the mark”, but insisted that she believed the complainant to be over the age of consent at the relevant time.

Advocate Littler moved on to early-2020, when Ms Bentley began to receive messages from the complainant demanding “answers” for what had allegedly happened to him.

“I was shocked, absolutely shocked – I recall going into my garden, my legs were shaking… I didn’t know what to do,” she told jurors.

She was asked about one message from the complainant, which stated: “I’ve got loads of questions for you.”

The care manager replied that she was “horrified, as anyone would be”, before repeating that she “always believed that he was over the age of 16”.

“I was just so worried about the whole thing,” she explained. “Worried about the whole impact on my work, on my home, on my children – my head was in such a mess at the time.”

Ms Bentley was also shown a picture of the complainant at “roughly the age”, on the prosecution’s case, that the alleged offences occurred – but she said the image did not match up with her own recollections.

“He looks very young in this photo,” she said. “He was much broader [when I kissed him], he had more weight on him and his hair was darker – he was obviously older.”

She proceeded to straightforwardly deny having any interaction at all with complainant on an alleged second occasion, telling jurors: “It’s simply not true.”

Crown Advocate Carla Carvalho, prosecuting, then cross-examined Ms Bentley on her “thought process” for approaching a teenage boy she had no relationship with.

“How do I know what my thought process would have been when I was intoxicated?”, the defendant replied.

The prosecutor then put to Ms Bentley that the kiss she had shared with the complainant was “sexual” in nature.

“Of course, yes, the kiss was [sexual],” Ms Bentley said. “You could use the term, maybe, that it was a bit of a passionate kiss.”

Asked by Advocate Carvalho if the kiss had then progressed to sexual intercourse with the complainant, Ms Bentley replied that it had not.

“But, it is right that you cannot be clear of what happened that night because of what you had had to drink?” the prosecutor continued.

“I can’t be clear, no,” admitted Ms Bentley. “No, I don’t know what happened from the kiss until I went to sleep and woke up.”

Ms Bentley was then heard to, again, deny ever having entered the complainant’s room on an alleged second occasion.

An emotional outburst from the defendant, during which she suggested that the alleged victim had slandered her name in court, led to the court taking a brief break.

Her evidence quickly re-commenced, and jurors are expected to retire to consider verdicts later today.

Deputy Bailiff Mark Temple KC is presiding. The trial continues.