A soldier molested a young woman after she was ejected from a nightclub by bouncers because she appeared to be drunk, a court heard.

James Walpole followed the 19-year-old out of the former Liquid & Envy at Lockmeadow in Maidstone and started talking to her and her friend as they sat on the steps of the cinema, Maidstone Crown Court was told.

At first, the married squaddie showed interest in the friend but when she left to go to the toilets in the club, he turned his attention to the teenager, it was alleged.

Prosecutor Michael Riley said CCTV cameras captured Walpole picking up the woman and carrying her with her legs dangling to a nearby car park, where he groped her.

"She recalls someone trying to touch her. The next thing she remembers is being in an ambulance..." - prosecutor Michael Riley

The 22-year-old father, of King's Bastion, Gillingham, denies sexual assault, claiming the woman consented.

She had gone to the club with friends in January last year. After she arrived she bought three double vodka and Red Bull drinks, one for a friend and two for her so that she did not have to return to the bar.

Mr Riley said the woman at one point went to a smoking room and saw a man there who made the comment: "Ladies first." There was no dispute, he said, that Walpole was in the club that evening.

"She went to the toilet," Mr Riley told the jury of eight women and four men. "Shortly after that she remembers coming over all funny. She was held up by others.

"She rang her boyfriend and said she wanted to go home. Things got a bit worse and she felt blurry. She next remembers bouncers telling her she had too much to drink. They took her out."

She was sitting on the steps of the Odeon cinema with her friend when Walpole, who was based at Invicta Park Barracks in the town, approached.

"She recalls someone trying to touch her," said the prosecutor. "The next thing she remembers is being in an ambulance."

Mr Riley said Walpole had carried the woman to the nearby car park next to the David Lloyd gym, put her on the ground and sexually assaulted her.

"The Crown say she was in no fit state to consent," said Mr Riley.

The trial continues.