A ‘DRUNK’ man is accused of stroking a teenage girl's leg at a train station and calling her 'sexy', a jury has heard.
John Kibe, 48, is currently on trial at Oxford Crown Court charged with one count of sexual assault against a female.
The defendant is accused of touching a 14-year-old girl’s leg at Didcot Parkway station on December 31 last year.
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However, Kibe has denied the offence – stating he had been asking for a charger and had not touched her at all.
During the trial on Tuesday (June 2), Kibe, of Lyford Close, Drayton, took to the stand to give his evidence.
The Prosecution’s case is that he had been drunk when he entered the station, off Station Road, at about 4.30pm on New Year’s Eve.
It is alleged he approached the young girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, who was sat with her friend inside the station.
They claim that Kibe had said: “You’re so f****** sexy.”
He then reportedly touched and stroked her leg.
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However, Kibe told the jury that he entered the station to get a train to Kent when he realised his phone had run out of battery and he could not check the train times.
He said: “I did not go towards them [the girls] immediately.
"I walked in and saw some cables [in the girl’s bag] so I thought, ‘Well, maybe they might have a charger’.
“My phone was dead just before I got there and I wanted to check the times.
"I didn’t know what the cables were and I know most youngsters have a charger so I just said, ‘Do you have a phone charger, can I please charge my phone?’.
“They said no so I just turned back because I knew there was a train and I was in a rush.”
When asked in cross-examination why he had not used the information desk to find out about the train times, Kibe said the station was busy.
“There were lots of queues,” he said. “I knew there was a train coming. I could not skip the queues.”
The Prosecution asked Kibe why he didn’t ask for a charger on the train if he knew there was a service arriving.
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He admitted it would have been ‘more sensible’ but he didn’t want to risk getting on the wrong service that did not have a connecting service without checking online.
Kibe also denied calling the girl ‘f****** sexy’ because he ‘doesn’t cuss like that’.
The trial continues with the jury due to retire soon.
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