Pervert sentenced after he groped a woman on train

A‘FRIGHTENED’ woman sent a desperate text to Virgin Trains after a sex pest on board repeatedly groped her.

Terence Elwell, 36, of Pleasant Street, Widnes, and formerly of Runcorn, initially sat next to his victim about 10 minutes after the service set off from Lime Street in late 2019 and tried to strike up a conversation.

Benjamin Jones, prosecuting at Chester Crown Court, said Elwell persisted despite the fellow passenger attempting to ignore him listening to music on her headphones as he began asking personal questions such as about her destination.

Mr Jones said the Elwell’s attentions ‘took a bizarre turn’ and he told his victim ‘I love you’.

The young woman felt ‘more and more creeped out’.

Elwell continued, telling her she was ‘beautiful’ and he began to ‘lean in shoulder to shoulder’, and said: “You’re beautiful, you’re pretty, f***ing hot.”

The woman tried to seek help using her phone.

Mr Jones said: “The victim tried to seek assistance from friends on Facebook.

“Text messages weren’t working on her phone.

“She had to resort to messaging British Transport Police (BTP) and Virgin Trains on Twitter.”

He added the train, which was travelling from Liverpool to Milton Keynes was ‘so crowded’ the manager couldn’t reach her to help.

Elwell began trying to put his hand on his victim’s thigh and she lifted it away, but he kept ‘repeatedly trying to do the same thing’.

Elwell tried to touch her stomach and then stroked her thigh ‘a couple of times over her clothes’ and told her ‘you’re not going to grass on me’.

The woman left the train at Milton Keynes and was ‘very distressed’.

Elwell was arrested at the station, and found to be carrying a ‘large you’re amount’ of valium tablets and cannabis.

He was also abusive and made ‘bizarre comments’ to the BTP officers.

In a victim personal statement, the woman said she now feels nervous on public transport as well as ‘panicky and anxious’.

She has also become ‘distrustful of men’, and feels she has not been able to discuss the incident with people she knows due to a perceived stigma around sexual assault, even though the incident wasn’t her fault and left her feeling ‘violated’.

A previous hearing at South Cheshire Magistrates’ Court in Crewe in September heard the incident described as Elwell having stroked the woman’s stomach and ‘grabbed’ and ‘stroked’ her thigh.

Elwell was convicted of sexual assault at trial in the lower court in Buckinghamshire in August after pleading not guilty.

The hearing at Crewe heard the defendant had a ‘traumatic past’ and was a ‘troubled individual’.

He later failed to appear before magistrates to be sentenced as was taken into custody on September 3, and for which he was fined with no separate penalty for the cannabis.

Daniel Travers, defending in Chester, said Elwell has now spent six weeks behind bars already.

He said his client still denies the offence and due to his ‘strong religious beliefs’ was ‘struggling to come to terms with matters’.

Mr Travers said Elwell has ‘complex needs’ including ‘mental health issues’ and a ‘possible learning difficulty’, adding Elwell was ‘extremely vulnerable in a prison environment’.

He said the persistent nature of the incident raised the issue of a lack of intervention from other passengers, telling the court: “That may be balanced by the inaction of other people on the train.

“It’s surprising it went on for so long and was as bad as described, why noone became involved.”

He called on the court to consider the recommendations for rehabilitation in the pre-sentence report on the ‘best way to protect the public’.

Judge Patrick Thompson, presiding, said the best way to protect the public was for Elwell to undertake treatment and rehabilitation as part of a community order and suspended sentence.

He sentenced Elwell to 12 months in prison, suspended for two years, with an order to complete 20 days of rehabilitation.

Elwell was placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years.

During his summingup, Judge Thompson said: “It seems to me it does cross the custody threshold.

“There’s no doubt about the effect it’s had on the complainant.

“It must be extremely frightening and it’s affected her confidence.

“It’s incredibly unpleasant.

“But it seems to me reading the report, there’s clearly some mental health disability, some learning disability.”

He added: “If I sent you to prison today, you probably won’t get any assistance in sorting out your mental health and challenging your distorted views towards sexual offending.

“That’s not in the interest of the public.

“You’ve spent some time in custody, you know what to expect if you repeat this type of behaviour.”

● Anyone who wants to report a sexual offence allegation is asked to call 101 where you will be spoken to by specially-trained officers.

‘You know what to expect if you repeat this type of behaviour’