Tube driver 'invited woman into cabin and sexually assaulted her while driving train'

20 June 2022, 16:29 | Updated: 20 June 2022, 16:36

A Tube driver allegedly sexually assaulted a young woman in the driver's cockpit of a train, a court has heard.

Nathaniel Cummings-Stewart, 47, allegedly told the woman to join him by the driver's seat before touching her thigh and making sexual remarks, MyLondon reports.

Cummings-Stewart - from Brent - is accused of turning the lights off within the cockpit, of suggesting he return to her hotel to 'Netflix and chill' and of smelling like he had recently been smoking cannabis.

He denied a single count of sexual assault.

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The woman travelled to London with her friend for a long weekend, jurors at Inner London Crown Court heard on Thursday.

She visited Wembley Boxpark to meet friends on August 21 2020 before returning to Central London later that evening.

She was walked to the nearest Jubilee station by her friend shortly after midnight, which is where Cummings-Stewart approached her, it was heard.

The woman claimed that he smelled of cannabis, telling the jurors: "It was strong, it must have been recent [that he'd been smoking]."

She said she sat next to him as he worked the train controls, claiming that he "turned the lights off, closed the blinds and locked the door" and began to suggest that he would come to her hotel after his shift ended.

He also insisted she take his number, the court heard.

The woman told jurors that she felt "uncomfortable", refusing to give her number and telling him she was 19.

She then text her friend which failed to send due to signal problems.

Whilst they were travelling between Tube stations, the woman said he reached over to give her a high five, before beginning to touch her upper thigh.

After arriving at Waterloo station, the woman said she insisted that it was her stop and left through a side door.

Speaking of her reaction to the incident, she told jurors: "My heart was beating really, really quickly - as soon as I got out of the platform I was jogging, my heart was pounding."

She said she turned to her mum a few days later before reporting him to Transport for London (TfL).

Jurors heard the recorded call, where she said: "I got really scared, I didn't know what was going to happen and I really did fear for what was going to happen."

Cummings-Stewart denied the allegation and claimed that he first approached the woman because she looked like his sister.

He said he invited her into the cockpit because she appeared "distressed" and claimed that she told him she was being followed.

The woman told jurors it "was not true at all".

The trial continues.