Foot fetishist who stroked a cop’s boot gets a suspended sentence
A sexual predator with a foot fetish who grabbed an off duty police officer’s boot on a train has escaped jail.
Paul Chigbu, 51, has spent years playing out his weird fantasies by fondling women’s footwear.
He was under an order banning him from touching any part of a woman or their clothing in public following a series of sex offences when he attacked the officer on November 4 last year.
Westminster Magistrates Court heard Chigbu approached the officer on the Epsom Downs train in West Croydon station and grabbed knee high black leather boot.
She was taking a train from from West Croydon station when she became aware of Chigbu.
He said something that she couldn’t make out as she was wearing headphones.
When she looked up he had moved closer and he then grabbed her right boot while leering at her.
The officer shouted: ‘What the f*** do you think you are doing, get off!’ and he let go.
In a statement the officer said: ‘I was shocked that this happened in the middle of the day where members of the public were present.
‘I now take a different train to work to avoid running into him.
‘I avoid travelling late to my job to avoid something like this from happening.’
Magistrate Sandra Graham told Chigbu: ‘We feel that this is so serious that only a custodial sentence is appropriate.
‘However we do feel that you haven’t been given the chance to have rehabilitation.
‘We are the therefore going to give you a two year suspended sentence of 26 weeks.’
A request from Chigbu’s defence to restrict reporting of his address was denied by the court.
Chigbu, was was on the dock in dark trousers, a parka and a beanie hat,gesticulating and muttering about costs he would have to pay as the sentence was passed.
He started pointing and shouted: ‘There was a photographer who snapped my picture in Hendon Magistrates Court and here today!
‘This is a violation of my privacy!’
Jack Jenett defending, said: ‘He is now a 51-year-old man.
‘He is currently living on his alone. By way of benefit, he is on universal credit.
‘In terms of his health, he is suffering from sickle cell disease.
‘He does not have anybody dependent on him but he does have an elderly mother who turns 77.
‘He goes to visit her frequently to make sure she is okay.’
When he was arrested Chigbu repeatedly claimed that he was just trying to pick up a blue travel card holder full of expired tickets that he had dropped.
He has been sentenced a total of 49 times for 79 offences, eight of which were of a sexual nature.
His sex offending dates to 1984 and resumed in December 2003 when he walked up and spanked a woman on the bottom while visiting a relative in hospital.
In June 2007 he jumped on the back of a woman dancer performing at a festival in Camberwell Green.
He tried to fondle a woman’s shoe at a bus stop in January 2009.
In October 2009 while on a train, he rubbed a fashion student’s knee, lower leg, and her knee-high boots.
He was jailed for eight months in 2011 after he grabbed the teenager as she chatted on her mobile phone and told her: ‘I like your legs.’
The 17-year-old had boarded the train home to Hayes, Kent, after finishing a shift at Selfridges department store in central London.
He was jailed for two years in prison for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in 2016.
Chigbu, of Dover House, Lovelinch Close, Bermondsey, was convicted of breaching a sexual offences order.
He was given a 26-week sentence, suspended for two years.
Chigbu was also ordered to attend an activity requirement for 45 days and a rehabilitation program for 45 days and will be on an electronic curfew for four weeks.
In addition, he has to pay £115 in court costs and a £106 victim surcharge.
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