Naked gym fanatic blamed protein shakes after he groped woman’s bottom

A gym fanatic claimed he stripped naked and touched a woman’s bottom in the female changing rooms after protein shakes left him ‘confused and disorientated.’

Sean Bigby, 35, crept up behind a swimmer and brushed against her buttocks while she washed her hands in the women’s locker room at Clissold Leisure Centre in Stoke Newington.

The stunned victim saw Bigby wander into the room stark naked minutes earlier but thought he had made an embarrassing mistake.

She told the father-of-two to ‘f**k off’ before reporting the incident to a life guard in November last year.

Bigby later told police he had been ‘confused and disorientated’ after taking testosterone and downing protein supplements at the gym after his work out.

He pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault at the Old Bailey.

Prosecutor Michael Williams said the victim was wearing a swimming costume in the women’s changing rooms when she saw Bigby come in ‘completely naked’.

‘At first she thought it was just an embarrassing accident, him being in the wrong changing room,’ he added.

The women ignored Bigby and went to the toilet, but when she returned to wash her hands in a basin ‘she felt a brushing on her bottom’.

Mr Williams said: ‘It shocked her, she jumped and said words to the effect of “what the
f–k?”‘

The woman reported the incident to a lifeguard and Bigby was later identified from CCTV footage.

Mr Williams said: ‘In interview he accepted he had been present on the day in question, had been naked and asserted that he had taken two protein shakes which had caused him to become confused and disorientated.’

Alexander Taylor-Camara, defending, said the assault was an ‘out of character’ offence committed while Bigby was taking ‘medication to support his gym activity’.

‘The mixture he was taking may have combined not to make his mental state the best,’ he added.

‘He told me he wasn’t aware initially of the woman and having become aware of her he then brushed past her.’

Prosecutors accepted they couldn’t prove Bigby had touched the woman with his penis and he was sentenced on the basis that he used another part of his body.

Judge Karim Khalil, QC, gave him an 11-month community order and told him to pay £1,200 prosecution costs and £750 compensation to the victim.

The judge also imposed a restraining order and a Sexual Harm Prevention Order which bars Bigby from going to Clissold Leisure Centre or contacting the victim for five years.

He said: ‘You were there, it seems, to use the gym initially but as time passed you ended up in the ladies’ locker room.

‘She noticed that you were naked but ignored you and carried on as best she could, but in due course you walked past her and she felt you touching her from behind.

‘She was plainly extremely disturbed by what was happening and told you in plain terms to f**k off.’

The judge said Bigby ‘described using protein shakes and possibly too much testosterone’ before the sexual assault.

‘[You said] your head was fuzzy, you thought you were in the mens’ changing room and were confused for a while,’ he added.

Judge Khalil said the interviewing police officer had been ‘unimpressed’ by Bigby’s story, which he accepted sounded ‘far fetched’.

Bigby, of Chatham Place, Wisteria Apartments, Hackney, east London, admitted sexual assault.
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