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| Paul Gascoigne cleared of sex assault on train | Paul Gascoigne cleared of sex assault on train |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| Former England footballer Paul Gascoigne has been found not guilty of sexually assaulting a woman on a train. | Former England footballer Paul Gascoigne has been found not guilty of sexually assaulting a woman on a train. |
| The 52-year-old had been accused of "forcefully and sloppily" kissing the fellow passenger on a service from York to Newcastle in August 2018. | |
| The jury is still considering a lesser charge of assault by beating. | The jury is still considering a lesser charge of assault by beating. |
| Mr Gascoigne wept in the dock and there were cheers of "yes" from the public gallery as the jury delivered its verdict. | |
| He had told Teesside Crown Court he gave the woman a "peck on the lips" to "boost her confidence" after he heard a male passenger call her overweight. | |
| The court heard Mr Gascoigne had been "naive" in kissing the woman, but that it had not been a sexual act. | |
| Judge Peter Armstrong told the jury he was willing to accept a majority verdict on the charge of assault by beating. | |
| He said that "assault by beating" is committed if the defendant "intentionally applies unlawful force to another who does not consent to it" | |
| 'Lied and lied and lied' | |
| As he left court, the former Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur, Rangers, Middlesbrough and Everton midfielder wiped his eye with a tissue and hugged his agent. | |
| Prosecutor William Mousley had told the court that Mr Gascoigne had "lied, and lied, and lied" during the trial, which heard he had been drunk on board the train. | |
| But Michelle Heeley QC, defending, said the former player had no sexual intention. | |
| She said "In his own naive way, he thought he was making a larger woman have more body confidence. | |
| "It's a clumsy way to go about building someone's confidence, but it was not sexual." | |
| Mr Gascoigne broke down as he told the court about what happened on the journey from Birmingham to Newcastle, on 20 August last year. | |
| The former footballer, who had been travelling with his nephews, said while passengers were asking for selfies and autographs he heard a man say about a passenger: "What do you want a photo of her for? She's fat and ugly." | |
| Mr Gascoigne told the jury he had previously had trouble with his weight and "automatically" went to sit next to the woman to reassure her. | |
| He said he told her: "You're not fat and ugly, you're beautiful." |