A PUB landlord has been found guilty of sexually assaulting three barmaids by pushing their wages into their cleavages.

Peter Hayball was cleared of 10 other sexual assault charges following a week-long trial at Exeter Crown Court.

He was acquitted of a series of alleged assaults on a fourth employee, who claimed he had touched her and put ice inside her bra while they were running an outside bar in a village near Taunton.

Hayball, 56, of Crossways, South Chard, was the landlord of a Devon pub that ran outside bars around the area, including in Devon and Cornwall.

He told the jury that banter and Carry-On humour had been mistaken for sexual advances.

He denied most of the specific allegations and said other incidents had been misunderstandings.

The three counts of which he was convicted all involved touching the breasts of female staff while putting their wages into their tops.

Recorder Mr Christopher Quinlan QC adjourned sentence until April 29 for a probation report and released Hayball on bail.

During the trial, the four women told the jury he assaulted them in a variety of ways, including slapping bottoms, brushing past their breasts in the bar and putting their wages into their bras.

They said they found the 20-stone landlord creepy and lecherous.

Hayball, who has left the pub but still runs an outside catering business from home, denied all the individual allegations.

He said he had patted one of the women on the bottom as ‘banter’ and touched another’s breast after she pushed it into his hand while chatting about breast enlargement.

He denied pushing wages into their tops as a ruse to touch their breasts.

He said: “I never did it. I never tried to put my hand down their tops. I did not touch or grope them. I have not sexually assaulted any of them. None at all, no.

“I am a gentleman and I am respectful to other people’s personal space.”

He denied all the allegations made by the youngest complainant, who worked for him at the village hall event near Taunton.

He said the woman had shown him her nipple during a discussion about piercings.

He said he had not put ice down her top or put her wages down his trousers at the end of the evening, as she had claimed.