A MAN from Swindon has been placed on the sex offenders register after sexually assaulting a woman while on a train travelling to Reading.

The 39-year-old has been placed on the sex offenders register and ordered not to go out between 9pm and 6am after touching a Reading woman on the thigh during a train journey in December last year.

Tolulope Adewunmi Aladejebi of Winterbourne Road, Swindon, appeared for sentencing on Friday, 29 August at Reading Magistrates’ Court, after being found guilty at an earlier hearing.

He was also placed on the sex offenders register for two years, ordered to wear an electronic tag for two months – the length of the curfew – and pay £720 costs and £150 compensation.

The court heard how the assault took place on Thursday, 19 December 2013 on the 4.45pm London Paddington to Reading service.

DC Chris Church, who led the British Transport Police investigation, said: “The victim got on the train at Paddington and sat by the window. As the train departed, Aladejebi got on and sat next to her, despite lots of free seats available.

“Aladejebi pushed himself up against the woman and – while pretending to be asleep – inappropriately touched her.”

The court heard how the woman then challenged Aladejebi and reported the incident to the train guard, who called the police. BTP officers met the train at Reading, arresting Aladejebi on suspicion of sexual assault.

Aladejebi was subsequently charged and released on conditional bail to attend Reading Magistrates’ Court for a preliminary hearing on 17 February.

DC Church added: “The victim did the right thing by reporting the incident to train staff and I would like to thank her for co-operating throughout out investigation. We will always fully investigate all sexual offences and encourage victims to report all incidents to us.”

This investigation is part of Project Guardian, a long-term project involving BTP, Transport for London (TfL), the Metropolitan Police and the City of London Police, which aims to reduce sexual assault and unwanted sexual behaviour on public transport in London.

According to the TfL safety and security survey, around 15 per cent of females have experienced unwanted sexual behaviour on its network, with the majority not reporting it to police.

One of the most common reasons for not reporting it is because they didn’t think it was serious enough to help combat this problem, Project Guardian focuses on increasing awareness and confidence amongst the public to report unwanted sexual behaviour to the police or members of staff, particularly those offences which are often unreported, such as sexual touching, exposure, outraging public decency, lewd comments, leering and harassment.

There are around 2,000 police officers and PCSOs dedicated to patrolling London’s transport network, who have been specially trained to deal with cases of unwanted sexual behaviour.

Every day plain clothes and high-visibility officers continue to patrol the network to identify offenders and prevent crime.