Millionaire accused of Tube groping claims he was sleeping
A MILLIONAIRE businessman accused of groping a young woman on a packed Tube carriage claimed he was asleep during the journey, a court was told.
James Froomberg, 62, a former City of London police director and government-appointed National Lottery commissioner, “repeatedly” stroked and squeezed the woman in a “deliberately sexual way”, the court heard.
Mr Froomberg is accused of pressing himself up against his alleged victim for “a couple of minutes” before getting off the train and attempting to avoid apprehension.
Mr Froomberg says he was asleep during the brief train journey and only awoke when the train pulled into Mile End station, where he got off.
James Mccrindell, his lawyer, told the jury at Blackfriars Crown Court that he could not recall the alleged incident, but conceded it was possible that having had too much to drink, he may have “tried to catch on to something”. He claimed that, if so, it was “only the one soft stroke” and a mistake.
The young woman and her boyfriend boarded the Central Line train at Holborn on May 1 at around 5pm.
Terence Woods, prosecuting, said: “Somewhere between Liverpool Street and Mile End she had the sense that someone was very close to her right hand side, slightly behind and she felt something against her bum. She thought it was someone’s bag at first, so to begin with she tried to move away, but as she moved as much as she could, whatever it was that was against her moved with her and she quickly realised that her bum was being touched by someone.”
He added: “This was not an act perpetrated by someone in their sleep. He was standing up, his eyes were open.”
The woman told jurors: “I tried to move and then I felt that someone was still touching me and it felt deliberate, it was making me uncomfortable.
“It was sort of stroking me, just repeatedly running his hand over me. I felt the hand squeeze me at one point.”
Her boyfriend described how he chased Mr Froomberg through the station as he alerted Transport for London (TFL) staff. “He was trying to push me out of the way. But by using his collar and sleeve I was able to hold him.”
Mr Froomberg claims he cannot remember anything between leaving the pub that afternoon and waking up at Mile End station. Mr Mccrindell told jurors it was “something that happened very quickly”.
He added: “We are talking about a soft squeeze, we are not talking about something that happened again and again and again.”
Cambridge-educated Mr Froomberg, from Edgware, north London, denies sexual assault. The trial continues.