A Metropolitan Police inspector left a junior colleague feeling “like a piece of meat” by allegedly sexually assaulting her in a busy London bar, a court has heard.
Allegations of assault on dance floor
Insp Dave Newman is accused of sexually assaulting three female officers on a dance floor in Soho while on a night out in 2023. The 39-year-old from Luton allegedly “grabbed, groped, stroked, and pinched his way around the dance floor” and assaulted three women, Southwark Crown Court heard. Two women have alleged he grabbed them in the vagina area above their clothes and a third said he touched her bottom.
The first complainant, junior to Newman, told Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday that the alleged assault left her feeling “like a piece of meat”.
Victim's testimony
“I wasn’t asking for it, you know, I felt disgusting – he didn’t have a right to touch me there,” she said. “Not that I could forgive anywhere else (but) there is just such an intimate, private part of my body that I just don’t expect anyone to be touching.”
During the rest of the night out the alleged victim felt “torn” about whether to make a report or continue working with Newman. “There was so much going through my head at the time, about everything I had to do, how it would affect my career”, she said.
Giving evidence behind a screen, she told jurors that another colleague at the bar warned her off making a complaint, saying: “‘He’s very drunk, you know, he’s a good man, you need to think about what you’re saying.’ Along the lines of: ‘What you’re saying could have a big impact on him’, you know.”
The alleged victim reported the allegation the next day to 101.
Details of the incident
Describing the lead-up to the incident, the complainant said Newman had been looking at her on the dancefloor and “I could see his eyes on my chest”. “I could see he was trying to get close to me and dance with me and from how he was looking I just didn’t feel comfortable.”
The woman, who became emotional several times but declined an offer of a break, added: “He kept trying to dance with me and it’s difficult to explain the ranking system. And so there’s a bit of being uncomfortable and a bit of trying to keep the peace. I didn’t want to be rude but equally I didn’t want to feel uncomfortable, so I was trying to be amicable, if that makes sense, so I briefly danced with him.”
“He was awful, he was really close”, she added. The complainant said she recalls feeling Newman’s hands “going up and down the back of (her) body” before he attempted to “seductively” whisper in her ear the song that was playing.
She said she walked away as she “just didn’t feel comfortable” but “as I was walking away I felt a hand grab my vagina – it was like a thud, like a cupping motion. The woman added: “I just froze, I didn’t know where to look, or what to do.”
Trial continues
Newman has denied three counts of sexual assault against three different women, who cannot be identified as they are alleged victims of sexual assault. The trial continues.
