Police have released footage of a man strolling down a Kings Cross street in the seconds before a woman was sexually assaulted as she walked home.

A man allegedly struck up a conversation with the 22-year-old woman as she ordered takeaway food from Pie Face near the luminous Coca-Cola billboard about 3.50am on January 20. She then left by herself. Security cameras captured a man with “chubby cheeks” sipping out of a bottle as he walked out of the shop and along Bayswater Road past another Mexican take away shop.

Police believe this may be a man who allegedly sexually assaulted a woman in Kings Cross on January 20.

The alleged victim told police the same man caught up with her as she reached the intersection of Bayswater Road and Ward Avenue.

She said the man engaged her in conversation before he physically restrained her, stuck his hands up her dress and groped her.