ZAP // Dall-E-2
A rail passenger who asked if he could kiss a woman is the first convicted under British harassment law. So far, 26 men have been arrested for this crime since the new legislation came into force on April 1.
On April 3, two days after the entry into force of a new law prohibiting harassment motivated by sex, David Stroud He grabbed the hair of a young woman on a train, and asked her: “can I kiss you?”
Stroud was on bail for stalking when he harassed the victim on the train. He had already pleaded guilty in another case of harassment, which lasted 22 months.
On that occasion, the man chased his ex-partner’s daughter; he regularly went to his house, offered him unwanted gifts and sent him more than 200 emails, says .
He was convicted on Tuesday of both crimes and escaped a prison sentencehaving received a 12-month community sentence and an obligation to complete 15 days of rehabilitation activities.
Aged 44 and father of two, Stroud had appeared at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court on May 7. Pleaded guilty to harassing his wife.
The prosecutor Paul Okebu told the court that Stroud sat next to the woman, who I was on the phone with my boyfriend, on a train that left Hastings at around 8:50 p.m. He tried to talk to the young woman, who tried to ignore him because she was a alone woman traveling.
Stroud, a resident of Dartford in the county of Kent, was “constantly leaning over the woman” and approached her, saying to her “and magic” and grabbing her hair, a gesture the victim “interpreted as sexual”, the court heard. The woman said she could smell alcohol on man’s breath.
The victim says the incident “made it very uncomfortable”, who felt “trapped”. Told Stroud to get out of his hair and not to touch it. “He kept trying to start a conversation and then asked, ‘can I kiss you?’”, said Okebu, to which the woman replied: “absolutely not”.
The victim’s boyfriend heard the comments on the phone and contacted the British Transport Police, who detained Stroud at London Bridge railway station.
When questioned, Stroud said: “It was just a jokewe were joking with each other, you know?” And he added: “I didn’t do anything wrong to you”.
In a statement, the victim said that since the incident, he has had difficulty traveling on public transport. “Now I have difficulty getting on transport public, especially on trains, both alone and with friends. When I travel, I am on constant alert and much more vigilant,” he said.
Since the legislation was introduced two months ago, 26 men were detained for this crime. Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse, Stroud said: “The law changes and it is what it is. I was just unlucky to be the first person at that time.”
“I wasn’t a monster”, he stated.
