THE FINANCIAL ADVISOR AND THE POP-SOCKS

A financial adviser who perform a sex act over a sleeping commuter’s socks during a late night train journey was jailed for 18 months.

The woman had her feet up on the seat opposite her when foot-fetishist Sanjay Vyas, 43, put them on his lap and started rubbing.

The shocked passenger pretended to carry on sleeping and ignore the pervert but opened her eyes when she felt him next to her.

As she looked up she found Vyas smiling at her with his flies undone.

The 23-year-old woman later discovered ‘suspicious staining’ on her pop sock after Vyas performed a sex act on himself.

Vyas was jailed for 18 months at Southwark Crown Court after jurors found him guilty of sexual assault by a majority of ten to two.

The court heard Vyas – a highly paid financial consultant – had a previous conviction for indecent exposure dating back to 1989.

Judge Gregory Stone, QC, told him: ‘This is a very serious offence, and I have no alternative but to send you to prison.

‘The victim was a complete stranger to you – this was an attack by a stranger which ook place in the middle of the night when she was tired and sleeping on a train.

‘She was in a vulnerable position, and it is important that females in our society feel safe traveling at night.

‘It is people like you that make them feel unsafe.

‘I am bound to tell you that the impression you created in my mind at the trial was very unfavourable.

‘I had the impression that you frankly didn’t care what you did to the young lady in the middle of the night, so long as it served your purpose, and I also gained the impression that you don’t understand how serious this sort of behaviour is.

‘It is not to your credit that there is another offence that has similarities to this offence.

‘Of course, it was 20 years ago, but there is an unfortunate experience in the courts that sexual offences can occur over very long periods of time.’

Vyas was told to pay £2,137 in costs and placed on the sexual offenders’ register for 10 years.

The judge told him: ‘You were a very high earning individual, and I see no reason why the prosecution of your case should fall upon the public purse.’

The court heard the victim had been out with friends in central London on the night of November 26, 2008.

She boarded the overground 3.22am train at Kings Cross St Pancras station towards her home in St Albans.

She had described herself as ‘tipsy’ but not drunk and felt tired as she sat on the train, putting her feet up opposite her.

Perverted Vyas spotted her sitting alone on the deserted carriage and subjected her to the assault.

Jurors were played a recording of the woman’s call to police when she got home.

She said: ‘The guy opposite me was, I think, trying to molest me.

‘I was falling asleep on the train and he started off by massaging my foot. I tried to get away from him and he had his trousers undone.

‘He started rubbing my foot and up and down my legs, then he was sitting next to me trying to hold my hand.

‘Then he had his trousers undone and he was trying to make me touch him.

‘I was just falling asleep then woke up to find my hands down his trousers.’

As the train pulled into Mill Hill Broadway Station, Vyas jumped up and got off.

The distraught victim continued her journey to St Albans station where she then reported her ordeal to the police.

When police interviewed her the next day she handed them her pop sock, which had ‘staining around the toe and a slightly stiff white stain above the toe area’.

Forensic examinations revealed a DNA link to Vyas.

Vyas, who attended court every day with his wife, claimed the sex act was consensual and said he had even asked the woman for permission to masturbate.

He also claimed once he had finished touching himself he continued massaging the victim’s feet until he arrived at his stop.

Vyas, of Bianca Court, Marchant Close, Mill Hill, north west London, was found guilty of sexual assault.

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