A terrified woman fled a railway station toilet in panic after catching a Russian banker staring at her over the cubicle partition, a court heard.
Alexey Ostapchuk, 32, was arrested in the woman’s loo at Cannon Street station in central London and allegedly told police: ‘I am ready to pay any fine’.
The woman told Inner London Crown Court she came to London for a ‘fun evening’ with friends on December 10, 2021.
‘The station was close to closing and there were no station workers monitoring who was going into the toilets,’ the woman told the court.
‘I was wearing a playsuit, which is an all-in-one outfit. So, in order to use it you have to take it all off.
Alexey Ostapchuk, 32, of Aldgate, pictured leaving Westminster Magistrates Court last year
Mr Ostapchuk is accused of peering over a cubicle in the female toilets at Canon Street Station (stock image)
‘In the cubicle next to me I noticed at the top there was something moving. It was dark in there, I didn’t realise what is was.
‘It startled me, I put my clothes back on best I could and used the mirrors outside my cubicle to adjust them.
‘I remember seeing something in the corner of my eye and seeing it above the cubicle.’
The woman told jurors she ‘panicked’ as Ostapchuk stared at her.
She said: ‘I was the only one down there, it was late, by myself. I wanted to get out of the toilets.
‘I quickly tried to put my outfit back on as fast as I could. I quickly looked in the mirror to adjust my clothing because it wasn’t sitting right.
‘I noticed a head staring at me in the mirror…his head wasn’t fully exposed. I knew he was standing on the toilet.
‘He was staring and staring and I panicked and I ran.’
Ostapchuk, who attended court wearing a three-piece dark blue suit accompanied by four friends in the public gallery, denies voyeurism.
Richard Witcombe, prosecuting, told the court the allegation was ‘for the purpose of sexual gratification he observed a woman doing a private act knowing they did not consent.
‘It was a Friday and [the complainant] was one of a number of young women who came into Cannon Street station that night.
‘She had come with friends from Kent and they were headed out for a fun evening in London.
‘When she was coming out of Cannon Street she needed to use the toilet.
‘She wanted to use the toilet before going on to enjoy her time in London.
‘She went down a couple of flights and along a corridor – what was clear to her was that the male toilets were on the left because they were signposted.
‘She was able to go to the female toilets. It was also an area which was sufficiently well-lit.
‘She went through a door into the female toilets, when she went into the room cubicles were on her left-hand side. The cubicles were for privacy.
‘She considered she was in the toilets alone. In the room, from what she could see, there was nobody else there.
‘She went into a cubicle in the middle of the range of them and sat down to use the toilet.
‘She noticed in the corner of her eye, movement above her head and she realised someone was looking down on her from the next cubicle.
‘Her reaction was to stop what she was doing. She got up, looking in the mirrors opposite she made sure her clothing was properly adjusted before she went out from the place where she was.
‘She saw a head sticking out of the wall of the cubicle adjacent to where she had been using the toilet.
‘Her reaction in that moment was to feel a sense of panic and her reaction was to then move quickly from the female toilets.
‘She felt a sense of apprehension. Even in heels she was able to move with some speed.
‘She looked back and saw that the male who had been in the toilet was following her.
‘She told her friends what happened and he walked past them and she felt at that moment he stared at her.
‘He went towards the front end of the station and it was in this moment she informed a member of station staff.
‘Alexey Ostapchuk came back into the station and went back to the toilets and at this stage in the moments that followed this, the police having been called, arrived at the station.’
PC Alexander Beard arrived at the station and noted the woman’s ‘considerable distress, the court heard.
Ostapchuk allegedly told police: ‘I am ready to pay any fine’.
The prosecutor added: ‘For his own sexual gratification, he chose to look at her knowing she wouldn’t know he was looking at her.
‘It is expected he will say he mistakenly entered the ladies toilets and entered them feeling unwell. During his time in there he vomited and left without wanting to be seen.
‘We ask why leave when you know that you have effectively been seen? Why go back and why, when a police officer is there, admit your guilty if you have done nothing wrong?’
Ostapchuk, of Allie Street, Aldgate, denies voyeurism.
The trial continues.
