Ilford tailor cleared of sex assault

A tailor accused of sexually assaulting a woman customer while taking her inside leg measurement has been cleared.

Naveed Farooq, 29, of Mortlake Road, Ilford, was said to have kissed the alleged victim’s crotch when bent down in front her with his tape measure.

The woman said she peered down in “horror” before walloping Farooq across the head and fleeing in tears to a nearby police station.

But a jury at Snaresbrook Crown Court took less than two hours to unanimously acquit Farooq after a two-day trial.

Prosecutors had claimed Farooq struck at a dry cleaners where he worked in Poplar, east London.

The woman, who cannot be named, said she went to the shop on February 4 this year to get alterations on two pairs of trousers.

She said Farooq directed her behind a laundry machine to change but when she emerged he was said to have stroked her legs while he pinned her trousers.

Then she claimed that Farooq allegedly buried his face in her “crotch area” and she looked down to see him kissing her there.

The woman said she dashed from the Market Way shop to nearby Chrisp Street police station.

But Farooq, via an Urdu interpreter, denied any inappropriate behaviour towards the woman during her visit.

He said: “I didn’t kiss her in the crotch area at all.”