Former England footballer Paul Gascoigne has been cleared of assault and sexual assault following an incident on a train last year.
The 52-year-old was accused of planting a “drunken and sloppy kiss” on a fellow passenger while travelling from York to Newcastle on August 20th 2018.
The woman told Teesside Crown Court that the ex-Newcastle, Tottenham and Rangers star had been sitting behind her on the train.
"Sloppy kiss"
She said he was being noisy, had food around his mouth and, later in the trip, attempted to sit on her lap.
She said she was “shocked” when he grabbed her face and kissed her on the lips.
“I tried to keep my mouth firmly shut,” she told the court. “I just completely froze.”
“It was just sloppy and it wasn't like a peck on the cheek like you might give someone. It was very full on the lips.”
She said the kiss came “completely out of the blue.”
Some of her fellow passengers told that they saw Mr Gascoigne “forcibly” kiss her on the lips and said she appeared “upset” and “distressed.”
Former England footballer Paul Gascoigne leaves Teesside Crown Court, Middlesbrough, 17-10-2019. Image: Danny Lawson/PA Wire/PA Images"Peck on the lips"
Mr Gascoigne said he approached the woman in a bid to comfort her after a different passenger called her “fat and ugly.”
He said he heard someone suggest she should have a “selfie with Gazza,” before overhearing another passenger say: "You don't want a photo with her, she's fat and ugly."
"Automatically I went and sat next to her and said, 'Look, you're not fat and ugly, you're beautiful inside'" he said.
His then told jurors he gave her a “peck on the lips.”
He said he did not regard the kiss as sexual harassment and told the prosecution the woman, who cannot be named, “didn't seem that bothered.”
Sexual assault charge
In a police interview after his arrest, he told officers he didn’t think the kiss was sexual harassment.
“I get kissed all the time,” he said. “So if that's the case, I have been sexually harassed for 20 years.”
He said he never apologised to the woman because she told another passenger that she was fine.
He told a custody sergeant: "All I was doing was trying to help a fat lass."
He said he had “three of four cans” before the incident and said any impression that he was slurring his words was because he did not have his false teeth in.
He was cleared of sexual assault and assault by beating.
