A City analyst groped a 15-year-old girl in the street after grabbing her as she walked to school, a court heard.
Adam Phote, 38, followed the girl before sexually assaulting her near the Barbican centre, the jury was told.
The girl, who cannot be named, said she first spotted the attacker across the road making “sexual gestures” at her.
Phote, an IT expert, then started to follow the girl when she walked past him, the Old Bailey was told. He grabbed her and then fled when she turned to confront him, it heard.
Phote, of Hatfield, who worked for Dutch bank ABN AMRO Clearing at the time, denies sexually assaulting the girl last May.
Prosecutor James Cartwright told the jury: “She wasn’t harmed and she wasn’t traumatised as far as we know, but it was a sexual assault and entirely against the law.”
He said the attack happened at around 8.30am as the girl walked past shops near the Museum of London.
“She saw a man,” he said. “She saw him making what she thought was sexual gestures directed towards her. She went past him and was aware this man was following her. She felt a man’s hand (on her).”
When the girl turned to confront the groper, he fled along Aldersgate Street and into London Wall, the court heard. CCTV footage shows him hurriedly leaving the scene and allowed police to circulate pictures of the attacker.
The following day Phote was spotted as someone fitting the description.
Phote, who did not comment when interviewed, was picked out in an ID parade by the victim, who told detectives: “I’m 95 per cent positive it’s him,” the court heard. The trial continues.
