A police officer told a court that a man arrested for allegedly touching a woman on a bus last summer has an Indian or Pakistani accent - but the complaint said the man that groped her had an American accent.

The 33-year-old denied invading the privacy of a female aboard a number seven bus from Dockyard on July 1 last year.

It was alleged that he ran his fingers up and down a woman’s thighs while sitting next to her.

The woman, who cannot be named, told Magistrates’ Court the Southampton man struck up a brief but friendly conversation with her when boarded the bus and sat next to her.

She said: “He said he was not from here and was new to the Island and trying to meet people. He asked me where I worked and I told him I was a nurse.”

After their brief conversation she called a friend on her mobile.

She then noticed his hand brush against her thigh but thought nothing of it because the seats are small.

However, when she felt his fingers running up and down her thighs she became alarmed and shouted “what the hell do you think you are doing”, she told the court. Yesterday, under cross examination by defence lawyer Mark Pettingill she agreed that she initially told Police the man looked Indian and had an American accent.

She also agreed that in a later Police interview she said the man was Sri Lankan but denied that Police had told her the man they arrested was Sri Lankan.

The bus driver, Timothy Seon, also took the stand yesterday and told Magistrate Khamisi Tokunbo that he had seen the defendant a number of times on the Number Seven bus route and that he was involved in an incident aboard a bus he was driving on July 1.

Mr. Seon told the court he was driving near Bermuda College when he heard a woman scream.

He was concerned that a physical fight would ensue and pulled the bus over and spoke with the woman who said a man had touched her and she wanted to complain to Police.

When he asked both individuals to step off the bus the man said the woman was a liar and walked off towards Elbow Beach but was spotted on another bus several minutes later, the court was told.

Mr. Seon said he flagged that bus down but that the man walked away a second time before Police could arrive.

A few days later the alleged victim called Police and told them she had spotted the man who touched her on Church Street.

Yesterday, P.c. Cletus Cuyris said the complainant took him to an office and pointed to a man she said touched her.

P.c. Cuyris said he invited the man to the Hamilton Police Station, questioned him about the incident, which the man denied, and then arrested him.

He told the court that the defendant had an accent that could have been Indian, Pakistani or Sri Lankan but that he was not sure the difference between those accents. Det. Wayne Gaskin also said the man had an Indian, Pakistani or Sri Lankan accent, similar to ones he heard from World Cup cricketers from those countries.

Crown Counsel Carrignton Mahoney told the court that the Crown’s case was based on the visual identification of the defendant but Mr. Pettingill said he would be making a “no case to answer” motion at the next court date, April 18.