A man has appeared in court accused of groping a woman’s thigh just hours after being let out of prison under the government’s early release scheme.

Amari Ward denied sexually assaulting the complainant outside Sittingbourne Railway Station on September 10 last year.

His trial started at Maidstone Crown Court today (February 25) where the jury heard the 31-year-old reportedly made several inappropriate comments in the moments leading up to the alleged touching.

Opening the hearing, prosecutor Trevor Wright said the woman was driving Ward to the station when she said words to the effect of, “I bet you are glad to be out”.

He told the court the defendant allegedly replied “I need a b*** j**” to which the woman did not respond.

Giving evidence, the alleged victim became very emotional as she recalled the incident but said she “dismissed” the comment, assuming Ward was implying he could not wait to see his partner.

However, she told the court the atmosphere in the car then changed and Ward continued to make “inappropriate” remarks including asking her if she had made a “porn movie” and if she wanted to with him.

She added: “I told him ‘absolutely not’ and I found it [the question] inappropriate. I felt very uncomfortable and I told him he was being inappropriate and he was told no.”

In his opening statement, Mr Wright said Ward ignored the woman and “persisted” asking if she would meet up with him for dinner now that he was a “free man”.

The complainant then accused Ward of putting his hand high up on her left thigh near her groin when they arrived and had parked outside the station in St Michael’s Road.

She told the jury, that she pushed him off and told him not to “f****** do that” but as she made to get out of the car he did it once again and asked her for a “kiss and cuddle”.

The court heard she once again pushed him off, punched him in the face clipping his chin, and told him to get out of the vehicle.

She added: “I felt very upset. I felt distressed and slightly humiliated.”

Ward “categorically” denies the allegations of sexual assault and claims he did not sexually touch the woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons,

He claims he did not touch her where she says and did not ask her for a “kiss or a cuddle”.

His lawyer Tommy Seagull argues Ward and the woman engaged in “lighthearted flirting” as well as conversations about their families, hair and work where the defendant also told her he “did OnlyFans”.

Mr Seagull said Ward felt the pair had built a rapport when he “playfully put his hand” near her knee which she “playfully slapped” away.

When questioned by the police following his arrest in Croydon, the jury also heard Ward said he was “astonished” to hear of the “false” accusations against him.

The jury has not been told why Ward was previously jailed but heard he was on early release as part of the government scheme.

The trial continues.