A civil servant accused of thrusting his hand up t

A civil servant accused of thrusting his hand up the skirt of a Buckingham Palace worker on a crowded tube train may not face a retrial after a judge said the Crown should call it a ‘draw.

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Judge Christopher Hordern, QC, suggested the prosecution drop the indecent assault charge despite the seriousness of the allegation.

During a two-day trial the 21-year-old woman said she was ‘horrified’ when she felt Christopher Baldock’s fingers creeping towards her private parts.

‘I noticed him because he was staring at me and it felt creepy,’ she said.

‘Then I felt some sort of pressure at the top of my right leg where it meets my bottom.

‘The pressure got more insistent.

There was a hand moving, it went between my legs.

‘I could feel his fingers moving directly between my legs in the genital area.

I was horrified.

‘I turned round and glared at him, and then moved away.

He smiled at me in a lecherous way, and I yelled at him.

Then I shot off the Tube at Victoria.

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But Baldock, 48, claimed he could not have carried out the assault at the time as he was holding his lunchbox at the time.

Baldock also denied that he then gave the 21-year-old a ‘smarmy and lecherous’ look before following her to the Palace gates from Victoria tube.

After deliberating for four-and-a-half hours, the jury failed to reach a verdict.

Judge Hordern formally discharged the nine women and three men panel and granted Baldock unconditional bail.

The judge initially suggested that the Crown might consider dropping the case.

‘Perhaps, in consideration of the taxpayer, consideration should be given to calling it a draw,’ he said.

He added that then the charge could be ordered to lie on the file.

But prosecutor Tom Wilkins told the court that the complainant in the case wants a retrial.

This led Judge Hordern to respond: ‘I can well understand the young lady saying I made a true complaint and I want it to be proved.

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The case has been listed for mention on March 23, when Baldock will hear whether or not he faces a retrial.

A single man, Baldock said he joined the Home Office 16 years ago.

His work as an archivist means he decides what documents relating to the police should be kept for permanent preservation at the public records office at Kew.

But Baldock said ‘more senior people’ decided whether to suppress embarrassing government documents.

Baldock, who was born in London, has no previous convictions, and his retired parents live in Liphook, Hampshire.

Baldock, of Sutherland Grove, Wandsworth Common, southwest London, denies one charge of indecent assault on 21 September last year.

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