FROHNWEISER: WOMAN GROPED IN FRONT OF HER FAMILY

A commuter groped a young woman’s crotch in front of her family as they used the Tube escalator, a court heard.

Jurgen Frohnweiser, 34, reached around and pushed his hand between the victim’s legs as she travelled down to Euston Underground Station from the railway concourse, it is claimed.

The 20-year-old complainant was with her mother and brother at the time, jurors heard.

She had just returned from a trip to the Midlands before the Sunday evening assault on January 23, 2010, Blackfriars Crown Court heard.

She said: ‘I felt someone grab between my legs with his hand and push between the very tops of my legs against my private area.

‘I could feel the fingers were being moved.’

Sumita Mahtab-Shaikh, defending Austrian-born Frohnweiser, suggested the victim was mistaken and that the defendant may have knocked into her as he passed in a hurry.

‘You think it must have been his hand that made contact with you,’ said the barrister.

‘You were shocked because he had barged into you and you assume this is what happened.

‘He apologised for barging into you.’

The alleged victim replied: ‘Not for barging into me because he didn’t, he grabbed me.

‘I would not have been in shock if he had just barged past me.

‘He grabbed me and that’s why I was in shock.’

The jury heard a member of the public then tried to intervene and Frohnweiser assaulted them.

Frohnweiser, of Lancaster Road, Dollis Hill, denies sexual assault and common assault.

The trial continues.

ends