A reality TV star told a court she was reduced to tears when a drunken City worker tried to kiss her during a Tube ride home.
The married television personality said Thomas Ledward, 26, smelled of alcohol as he sat next to her and tried to strike up a conversation.
She said “well-spoken” Ledward told her he had been for an evening out with City colleagues, then began taking selfies of them together as she tried to ignore his advances.
The woman, who is known to millions through her TV work, said she spent the Tube ride “in fear” as Ledward refused to leave her alone.
He stood up at Whitechapel station and seemed to be getting off but instead leaned over, grabbed hold of the fur-lined cape and tried to kiss her, it is alleged.
“As he started to walk towards me, my immediate thought was he was going to apologise but he didn’t,” she told Blackfriars crown court.
“He leaned in and put his two hands on to the chair — he grabbed me by my cape and plunged towards me, holding his thumbs between my neck and the cape and squeezing it tightly.”
She said Ledward then “opened his mouth — he had a little bit of his tongue out” and tried to kiss her.
The woman said she screamed for help and kicked and pushed Ledward, who stumbled backwards before getting off the train at Stepney Green.
“I just couldn’t believe someone would do something like that,” she said. “I was in shock and upset.”
The woman said she broke down crying when she called her husband to tell him what had happened.
Ledward was identified through CCTV and his Oyster card and is now on trial accused of sexual assault. He admitted to police it was “probably him” on the train but insists the woman has misunderstood what happened.
Ledward denies sexual assault and an alternative charge of attempted sexual assault. The trial continues.
