A top Thanet restaurateur has been convicted of historic sex crimes after a jury was shown a pair of black frilly knickers.

The victim told the police they were the kind of underwear she was forced to wear during the sickening assaults.

Officers, who searched the home of Malcolm Curtis, owner of The Bangkok Thai Restaurant in Cliftonville, found the pair.

The underwear were held in front of the jury by a female police officer at the beginning of the trial.

But the 60 year old - a former publican at Ramsgate’s Rising Sun - claimed he wore them initially “as a prank”, and later because he was incontinent.

Former sheet metal worker Curtis, of Gilford Road, Deal, had denied allegations of sex assaults in the 1980’s claiming he was impotent.

And when detectives challenged this by pointing out his Thai wife had become pregnant, Curtis claimed it was done using “a spoon and a syringe.”

But the jury at Canterbury Crown Court rejected his account and convicted him of five charges of indecent assault.

He will be sentenced next month.

Prosecutor Simon Taylor told how the restaurant boss carried out a series of assaults on the woman 30 years ago.

The former husband of the victim told the jury at Canterbury Crown Court how he confronted Curtis by telephone some years ago.

And the victim recalled how Curtis later “went onto his hands and knees and begged forgiveness” for his sex assaults.

But Curtis denied carrying out the attacks or making a confession and claimed he had been impotent since his first wife cheated on him and he had unsuccessfully tried Viagra and other medicines.

“I was left impotent when my first wife left me. I think it was the psychological shock of the divorce," he told the jury.

He claimed the black pants found at his home had been bought by his wife on a shopping trip and he had tried them on “as a prank”.

Curtis said he became incontinent after drinking beer and had worn then “on a couple of occasions” after stuffing them with towels to prevent him wetting the bed.

After a series of sexless relationships, he told how he had gone to Thailand on holiday and met and later married his second wife, Sumai.

She told the jury that Curtis had told her: “Willie don’t work” and said that she had bought the black knickers on a shopping trip with a female friend.