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A train passenger who pulled on a young woman’s hair and said “can I kiss you” has been convicted in the first sex-based harassment charge brought by the British Transport Police (BTP) since the law was changed.
David Stroud, 44, made sexually motivated comments to the woman on a train to London on April 3, two days after a new law came into force banning harassment motivated by a person’s sex. He pleaded guilty to harassing the woman because of her sex at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court on Thursday (May 7) after originally telling police it “was just banter”.
Prosecutor Paul Okebu told the court how Stroud sat next to the woman, who was on the phone to her boyfriend at the time, on a train which left Hastings at about 8.50pm.
Stroud tried to make conversation with the young woman, who attempted to ignore him as she was a lone female travelling, the prosecutor said.
The court heard Stroud, of Dartford, Kent, was “constantly leaning on to the woman” and got closer, telling her “you’re magical” and grabbing her hair, which the victim “perceived to be sexual”. The woman said she could smell alcohol on the defendant’s breath.
Mr Okebu said the woman was made to “feel very uncomfortable” by his actions. She felt “cornered” and said she told Stroud to get off her hair and not touch her.
“He continued to try to make conversation and then asked ‘can I kiss you?’,” Mr Okebu said, to which the woman replied “absolutely not”.
Stroud, a father-of-two, told the woman “you’re never going to find someone who loves your hair as much as I do”, and she replied “I already have someone”.
The woman’s boyfriend heard the comments over the phone and called BTP, who arrested Stroud at London Bridge station.
While under caution Stroud said: “It’s just banter, we had banter together, do you know what I mean,” the court heard. He also said: “I’ve done nothing wrong to her.”
Alex Chowdhury, defending, told the court Stroud, a technician at a water company, had “reflected” on his offending.
“As a result of reading through the (court) papers he has realised it’s a lot more than that (banter),” Mr Chowdhury said.
Mr Okebu told the bench of magistrates: “Your worships, this is a matter which on another day in different circumstances may have amounted to a sexual assault. It is a serious offence, targeting of a lone woman on public transport late in the evening.”
The magistrates ordered a pre-sentence report and Stroud will be sentenced at the same court on June 9.
The new offence, under Section 4B of the Public Order Act 1986, covers intentional harassment directed at someone because of their sex, including where perpetrators target women and girls in public places, including streets, parks and public transport, the Home Office previously said.
BTP previously said the new section “strengthens existing public order powers by criminalising behaviour which causes intentional harassment, alarm or distress because of a person’s sex or presumed sex”.
When the change in the law was announced, safeguarding minister Jess Phillips said: “If you harass someone in public because of their sex, it will not be tolerated and you can face a criminal record and up to two years behind bars.”
Nathan Miebai, deputy chief Crown prosecutor for the West Midlands Crown Prosecution Service, said: “It is vital that women and girls feel safe in public spaces and able to live their lives without fear of harassment because of their sex.
“David Stroud made that impossible for one woman who was simply travelling home on the train and today he has faced the consequences of his actions.
“This first-of-its-kind conviction proves that through close collaboration across the criminal justice system, we can deliver outcomes like these for more victims and build a safer environment for everyone to be a part of.”
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