Former Charterhouse pupil ‘groped bar manager for a dare’
A FORMER pupil of boarding school Charterhouse groped a venue manager at an arts centre for a ‘dare’, a court heard yesterday.
Alexander Broke- Smith, 23, allegedly sexually assaulted the woman while attending a birthday party in north London with his girlfriend in July last year.
The couple were with friends at a bar when the manager came over and asked about their tab.
Broke-Smith then cupped her bottom from behind as she chatted to staff, Wood Green Crown Court heard. Jerry Hayes, prosecuting, said the events manager noticed a young male sitting on a high wooden chair at the bar. ‘The tone of this man made her feel uncomfortable. She told the defendant she was the venue manger. There was a verbal exchange.’
Mr Hayes added: ‘Then, she felt an aggressive push, between, in her words, her “a*** cheeks”.
Broke-Smith attended Charterhouse in Godalming, Surrey, and read history at the University of Edinburgh after leaving the £38,000-a-year boarding school, according to his LinkedIn page.
Giving evidence the woman told jurors she yelled: ‘Oi! You!’ at Broke-Smith but saw him laughing and joking with his friends.
She said she grabbed him by the wrist, hauled him out of the bar and waited for security.
The woman said Broke-Smith told her: ‘You are making a big deal out of it. It was just a dare. I said I was sorry.’ She added: ‘Firstly, I was in shock, completely disbelieving. I felt a hand aggressively push between my butt cheeks, and forcefully forward and then cup and squeeze my right buttock.’
The head of security at the arts centre told the court: ‘The complainant came up to me. She told me a guy had touched her bum upstairs. She pointed him out decidedly that he was the guy who touched her. I asked the guy to leave the venue.
‘At that point … he said something like “It was only a joke”.’ The security chief said he then changed his mind and asked Broke-Smith to come back inside because it was a ‘police matter’.
He told the court: ‘He did not comply. I told him what was going to happen. He decided to run away. I tried to restrain the gentleman [and] his jumper was ripped. He ran off in the direction of the high street. I saw the complainant again – she was very upset.’
Alumni of Charterhouse, founded in the 17th century, include Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, broadcasters David and Jonathan Dimbleby and the author Robert Graves.
Broke-Smith, of Fulham, southwest London, denies one count of sexual assault by touching.
The trial continues.