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More on KentOnline
A schoolboy claimed a pensioner sexually assaulted him repeatedly on a double decker bus.
David Sharp, 69, reportedly groped his 15-year-old victim after striking up a conversation on the Stagecoach service from Ashford.
Sharp, who denies sexual assault, stands trial this week at Canterbury Crown Court.
The boy, now 17, explained Sharp honed in as he sat alone at the back of the top deck.
Sharp began small talk with the alleged victim, complimenting his physique, occasionally touching him non-sexually.
When the boy took a return journey a few hours later he was “shocked” to see Sharp sitting in the same spot, a jury heard.
It prompted the boy to sit downstairs, where Sharp followed and continuously attacked him, Judge James O'Mahoney heard.
During a police interview played in court, the alleged victim said: “I got my headphones out, went to listen to music, pressed the play button and he comes over, and I thought ‘here we go’.
“The first thing he says is ‘I’m going to keep you company’.
“All of the back seats were free, but he decided to come and sit right next to me.”
He described Sharp casually talking to him before carrying out the sexual abuse and making lurid remarks.
However Sharp’s barrister Sarah Selby argued any touching was accidental.
“All of the back seats were free, but he decided to come and sit right next to me...” - teenage victim
“Could he have touched you when he was moving around?” she asked.
“No,” he replied.
“Could it be possible when he touched you, it wasn’t deliberate?” she asked.
“No - it was deliberate.”
“Is it possible you misinterpreted that man’s actions as sexual that day, when indeed they were not?”
“It’s not possible,” he said.
He told officers he fled the bus to escape the suspect and then phoned his parents who alerted police.
Asked by Mr Prosser how he felt during the assault, the alleged victim said: “I felt a bit stressed out, a bit angry, it’s just a bit worrying why an old man was touching me.”
The court heard the bus’ CCTV system was out of service on the day of the alleged attack.
However the boy ran into Sharp a week later at a KFC takeaway, where the defendant was filmed.
After a CCTV still was circulated by KentOnline, Sharp attended a police station where he gave a no comment interview.
Mr Prosser told the jury: “The crown say the defendant sat beside the boy late on Saturday afternoon. The boy says the old man engaged him in conversation and then began to touch him sexually.
“The boy says he was embarrassed and confused by the old man’s actions.
“David Sharp admitted he was that man and accepts he engaged him in conversation but says there was no such sexual touching."
Sharp, of Apsley Street, Ashford, is accused of one count of sexual assault, allegedly carried out in December 2017.
The trial continues.
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