A TUBE passenger prosecuted for a grabbing a fellow commuter's buttocks as he walked down a station platform was given a six-month conditional discharge.
Married dad Richard Brett, 35, groped the victim's bottom in the mistaken belief the man was coming on to him after he boarded the 8.20am Picadilly line train at Northfields station. The furious victim, a research assistant, confronted Brett, grabbing him by the collar and pushing him up agianst a wall after the incident at Gloucester Road station on January 17 last year.
Southwark Crown Court heard on Monday how Brett, of Murray Road, Ealing, begged him not to say anything as he did not want his wife and kids to find out he was 'going around and groping men'.
The shocked passenger reported the incident and two weeks later Brett was arrested at South Ealing station.
He claimed the victim had been making sexual signals towards him on the train.
Brett was found guilty of one count of sexual assault and cleared of a second count of the same offence following a trial in July.
