Two women told a court how they were sexually assaulted by a bus passenger.

One alleged victim said the man touched her leg three times as she dozed on the journey west from the City of Hamilton on December 22 last year.

Yesterday, she told Magistrates' Court on the first two occasions she thought she had been dreaming but the third she realised it was really happening.

The other alleged victim said she felt something tickling her leg as she made the journey west on the bus from Hamilton on December 14.

She said at first she thought it was a roach, then when the tickling continued she thought it was something out of her handbag.

However, shortly afterwards she said she felt a hand on her thigh and believed it was the man sitting next to her. She said she contemplated punching the man but decided against it.

Both women claimed the passenger sat next to them even though there were other empty seats on the bus.

The 33-year-old defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denies two counts of sexual assault and two counts of invasion of privacy on a female.

His lawyer Mark Pettingill says he has been wrongly identified.

"I know I dozed off," said the first alleged victim. "I woke up. I thought I was dreaming because I could feel a rubbing on my leg.

"I looked around as if 'who's that?' I looked at the man and he looked ok. I just thought I was dreaming. He didn't look suspicious; he had a straight face."

She said she then went back to sleep but woke again when her leg was being rubbed — but again thought she must have been dreaming.

Later she felt a hand on her thigh and saw it was the man next to her.

"I said: 'This man has just assaulted me.' I said it again out loud. Then I looked around and no-one was like doing anything or saying anything," she said. She said the alleged offender then denied the incident and got off the bus at Warwick Camp.

The second alleged victim said she was returning home after Christmas celebrations with her work colleagues.

"I felt like some tickling on my leg; my upper left thigh," she told the court.

"I thought it must have been a roach or something, some bug crawling on me, so I just flicked it away. I again felt a tickling. I thought to myself maybe there's something in my bag."

Explaining that when the tickling continued she suspected it must be the man next to her, the woman said: "I thought to myself, this guy can't be tickling me. Should I just punch him? I decided not to punch him or say anything."

She said she later felt a hand on her upper thigh and jumped. The man sitting next to her had no reaction to her jumpiness, she said.

Mr. Pettingill told the court the identification evidence was "poor at best". He said one of the alleged victims had picked his client out in a line-up parade nearly two months after the alleged incident amid a "fever" in the media about a man touching up women on buses.

"This is ghastly, ghastly identification evidence," said Mr. Pettingill.

The case continues before Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner.