Porter ‘got into bed with the chef to assault her’

A kitchen porter at an exclusive Mayfair hotel sexually assaulted a teenage chef after climbing into bed with her, a court heard.

Laercio Bez, 52, allegedly forced his hands inside the woman’s pyjama top and bottoms while she was fast asleep following a 14-hour shift on Christmas Day 2016.

The 19-year-old junior chef said when she woke, she struggled with Bez for at least 10 seconds before she was able to escape the bed and get out of the room.

Speaking from behind a screen, the alleged victim said that she and colleagues had been allocated rooms during the Christmas period because public transport was suspended.

She had been sharing a room with a girl of a similar age, but that after she had gone to bed her colleague had asked if Bez could use her bed so that she could spend the night with her boyfriend.

Before going to bed, the hotel had set up a small function room where staff could have a few drinks and celebrate Christmas at the end of their long day.

‘I went to bed at 2.30am or 3am. I had a big tee-shirt and pyjama shorts on.

‘I was woken by Bez and my colleague coming into the room. She asked if he could sleep in that room so that she could sleep in his room [with her boyfriend].

‘I think I was very tired and I wanted to go back to sleep. I said I didn’t care.

‘I went back to sleep and I remember waking up with Bez’s hands around me – one was going under my tp touching my breasts and one was in my shorts touching my vagina.

‘He said my name two or three times. I was saying no and I tried to pull his arms off me. I was struggling for maybe 10 seconds before he let go.

‘I then grabbed my phone from my bedside table and got out of the room.

‘It was 5am and I knew that’s what time my friend started her shift so I called her as I was walking to the kitchen to see her.’

The fellow chef let the complainant use her room, while another colleague comforted the teen.

The alleged victim told the court that she was friendly and polite to the Portuguese-born defendant, but didn’t really know him.

‘He was a kitchen porter. We didn’t work together but we worked in the same room,’ she said.

Bez, of Falconer Walk, Finsbury Park, denies one count of sexual assault.

The trial continues.
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