Mr Pearson can be seen holding his bag and a newspaper

A commuter has spoken about the year-long trauma of being accused of sexually assaulting a woman despite there being no evidence to back up her claim whatsoever.

Mark Pearson, 51, was walking through Waterloo station – the busiest station in the UK – at rush hour and he brushed past an actress in December 2014.

She contacted police accusing Mr Pearson of penetrating her for two or three seconds following a violent blow to her left shoulder.

They tracked him down using data from his Oyster travel card at his home two months later when police turned up at his home.


Mr Pearson is under the red triangle, the woman is under the blue one

This is the moment the ‘two to three second sex assault’ is supposed to have taken place

The allegation went so far that Mr Pearson was put on trial for three days before his name was cleared following what he told the Mail on Sunday was a ‘Kafkaesque nightmare’.



There are three stills from CCTV footage that show when they passed one another in a fleeting second, he was holding his bag in one hand and a newspaper in the other.

He told the court: ‘I would have had to crouch down, put my hand up the woman’s skirt… penetrate her, take my hand out again… all while holding the newspaper and walking along the concourse… It’s preposterous… It is against everything I believe in as a human being. I did nothing.’

There were no witnesses and no forensic evidence

Aside from that, the actress failed to pick him out in an ID parade, there were no witnesses and there was no forensic evidence.

The jury cleared his name after just 90 minutes of deliberation, but the effect on Mr Pearson has been dramatic.

‘For me, half a second turned into a year of hell. I feel I have undergone a form of mental torture sanctioned by the state.’

Mr Pearson has criticised the Crown Prosecution Service over the trial

In his summary, Judge Peter Clarke QC said the victim was very specific about an alleged shoulder barge, describing it in detail. However when she came to talk about the penetrative sex assault she seemed ‘coy’.

After the conclusion of the trial, Mr Pearson said the Crown Prosecution Service needs to use common sense.

The CPS said: ‘The CPS said: ‘There was sufficient evidence for this case to proceed to court and progress to trial. We respect the decision of the jury.’