ALIMZADA: ACCUSED PERVERT ‘GROPED WOMAN AT FILM PREMIER’

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24 August 2011

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A tourist was repeatedly molested as she waited outside a cinema for the premiere of a star-studded film, a court heard.

The 21-year-old was allegedly groped by Nazar Alimzada as she strained to catch a glimpse of Cher and Christina Aguilera at the first UK showing of Burlesque.

Southwark Crown Court heard Alimzada, 45, was caught by undercover officers who had observed him thrusting his groin against the woman’s back

He then reached out and grabbed her bottom in what was described as a ‘frightening and belittling’ experience on December 13, last year.

Prosecutor Allister Walker said the victim and her friend, who had travelled from Scotland to London for a long weekend, had been in Leicester Square at around 6.30pm for the premiere.

‘They were hoping to see Cher on the red carpet,’ he said.

‘They were 10 to 15 metres from the entrance when the victim became aware of a male behind her pressing his chest up against her back and his groin against her bottom.

‘She describes him thrusting towards her eight or nine times.

‘She broke free of him from time to time and looked at him but almost immediately after he came back up against her.

‘He then reached out and stroked her bottom.

‘She was upset and wanted to cry.’

Mr Walker said that the woman’s ordeal only came to an end when an undercover police officer who had spotted Alimzada ‘staring at women in the crowd’ watched as he pressed himself against her.

The suspect was then arrested.

Giving evidence from behind a screen the victim told jurors: ‘I was just down in London from Scotland.

‘I was there to enjoy the premiere.

‘I was too scared to say anything to him.

‘When I said to my friend that something was not quite right that’s when the undercover police officer tapped me on the shoulder and told me what he had seen.’

Alimzada, of (4) The Heathway, The Common, Southall, Middlesex, denies one count of sexual assault.

The trial continues.

ENDS