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Paul Gascoigne cleared of sexually assaulting woman on train


The former England footballer Paul Gascoigne has been found not guilty of sexually assaulting a woman on a train.

Gascoigne, 52, was accused of drunkenly grabbing the woman’s face and “forcibly and sloppily” kissing her on the lips on 20 August last year.

But after a three-day trial at Teesside crown court in Middlesbrough, a jury on Thursday acquitted the former midfielder of sexual assault. Jurors are still considering an alternative charge of assault by beating.

Gascoigne put his head in his hands and wept as the verdict was read out, almost three hours after jurors began their deliberations.

The former Newcastle United player had told the court he kissed the woman to “give her some confidence” after, he claimed, she was insulted about her weight by another passenger.

The court heard Gascoigne had been drinking lager on the Birmingham-to-Edinburgh train, with witnesses describing how he was surrounded by empty cans and had offered gin and tonic to other passengers.

Witnesses told the jury his speech was slurred and he had food smeared across his face – he admitted that at one point he had cake on his forehead as he was “messing about” with his teenage nephews.

But the trial centred on whether the kiss was sexual. The judge, Peter Armstrong, told jurors they must be sure beyond reasonable doubt that the kiss was a sexual act or that Gascoigne had a sexual motive in order to find him guilty.

The former Tottenham Hotspur and Everton player insisted the act was not sexual and refused to apologise while giving evidence.

“I was not drunk, I was not forceful, I was not sexual. I was just reacting to the lady getting called fat and ugly,” he told jurors from the witness box.

Gascoigne said he had been posing for photographs with passengers when he overheard someone shout about the complainant: “Why would you want a photo with her for? She’s fat and ugly.”

That was a lie, the prosecution claimed, and there were no witnesses in the trial who said they heard the woman be insulted about her weight, or any to back Gascoigne’s assertion that the complainant took his photo with two women sitting opposite her. In fact, the two women denied they had a picture with the former footballer and told jurors they tried to ignore him.

Giving evidence, Gascoigne described how he had felt moved to “reassure” the woman after the supposed insult because he had experienced bulimia and been criticised for his weight throughout his playing career. “I was called a fat bastard every time I played,” he said.

Gascoigne’s barrister, Michelle Heeley QC, told jurors the former footballer kissed a woman who was not expecting it and did not like it, but that did not make him a sexual offender.

She said the kiss lasted two or three seconds, on a packed train, and was not preceded by any “lecherous comment”, touching or groping. She told the jury the kiss might have been “misplaced”, but it was not sexual, adding: “You cannot be sure Mr Gascoigne had a sexual intent. He has been consistent throughout, he didn’t kiss [the complainant] for any other reason in his mind than to reassure her that she was not fat or ugly.”



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