A businessman celebrating his company’s sponsorship of a match at the Amex groped a woman, a court heard.
Thomas Welfare, 39, was at the football stadium with his wife and children when the alleged assault happened on 2 February, 2019.
Brighton and Hove Albion were playing Watford at home, a game which ended in a goalless draw. Sky Construction, the company Welfare runs with his wife Laura, was match sponsor.
Welfare had been drinking and was in high spirits when he approached the woman, whom he had only met briefly a few times.
The quantity surveyor, of Oak Grange, Burgess Hill, denies sexual assault, and this week his trial began.
Summing up at Brighton Crown Court today, Judge Shani Barnes reminded the jury of the woman’s evidence. She said: “He was there with his wife and family, and their friends and family.
“At the end, as the CCTV shows, he went straight up to her. He leaned in quite close to her.
“He wanted her phone number and she said that’s not going to happen and then he grabbed her bottom and she got upset by that.
“His reaction was to put both arms out to give her a huge and she pushed him away and said no.
“Again, he came in and she said no and pushed him away.”
The woman immediately reported it to Amex staff.
Judge Barnes also told the jury Welfare declined to answer questions when interviewed by police, but gave them a prepared statement in which he accepted he had approached her, but denied the sexual assault.
During his evidence, he said he had been nothing but polite to the woman and said he did not know why the she had made the allegations.
The jury has now retired to consider its verdict.
