Watching Gazza fail has been almost- almost – as bad as watching the decline of George Best those decades before. The latest installment in the saga has been that Paul Gascoigne has been charged with sexual assault. This follows an incident on a train back on August 20th, the announcement of the charging coming today:
Football legend Paul Gascoigne has been charged with sexually assaulting a woman on a train from York to Durham.
We wonder whether this was on one of the days he is drinking or not:
Former England footballer Paul Gascoigne has been charged with sexually assaulting a woman on board a train in August.
The 51-year-old former England international was arrested at Durham station on August 20 and on Monday British Transport Police confirmed that he had been charged with one count of sexual assault by touching.
The offence in a little more detail:
It added that Gascoigne was charged “with one count of sexual assault by touching, contrary to section 3 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. The charge relates to an incident onboard a train on 20 August this year.”
The likely explanation of this is that he groped the lass. The definition and possible sentence for this:
Sexual assault
(1)A person (A) commits an offence if—
(a)he intentionally touches another person (B),
(b)the touching is sexual,
(c)B does not consent to the touching, and
(d)A does not reasonably believe that B consents.
(2)Whether a belief is reasonable is to be determined having regard to all the circumstances, including any steps A has taken to ascertain whether B consents.
(3)Sections 75 and 76 apply to an offence under this section.
(4)A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable—
(a)on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or both;
(b)on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years.
Note those are maximum sentences, not anything that’s likely to be handed down.