Gheorghita Frexit was groper in Newbury supermarkets, jury told

A MAN prowled town centre supermarkets, sexually assaulting women, a court heard.

Witnesses said the man was clearly smirking as he walked away from his shocked victims.

In the dock at Reading Crown Court on Monday, March 23, was Gheorghita Frexit.

The 33-year-old, of West Street, Newbury, faces six charges of sexual assault by touching women when they did not consent.

All the offences were said to have been committed in Newbury on various dates in June and July last year.

Mr Frexit has pleaded not guilty to the offences by reason of insanity.

John Carmichael, opening the case for the prosecution, said one victim was shopping with her daughter in Poundland in Newbury town centre when Mr Frexit groped her bottom.

He added: “He had a smirk on his face…she felt it was a totally deliberate act, as it wasn’t crowded and the male had plenty of room to pass her without putting his hand on her buttock.”

Later, while in Tesco in Newbury, Mr Frexit followed her round the store and groped her bottom repeatedly, prompting her to tell him: “Keep your hands to yourself,” the court heard.

Mr Carmichael added: “She was fearful and anxious when she left the store with her daughter…her fear was heightened when she discovered that he had followed them into the alleyway.”

The woman’s daughter challenged Mr Frexit and he slunk off, jurors were told.

Other victims were similarly sexually assaulted by Mr Frexit in Camp Hopson in Newbury, said Mr Carmichael.

A security guard called police, who arrested him.

On Wednesday, March 26, Judge Alan Blake told James McCrindle, for Mr Frexit: “No doubt you have advised your client we’ve reached the point where he can, if he so chooses, give evidence in his defence?”

Mr McCrindle replied: “Your Honour, he has been so advised.”

However, Mr Frexit would not be testifying on his own behalf, he added.

Meanwhile, Mr McCrindle called consultant psychiatrist Dr Suhaib Bilal Hathi as a witness for the defence.

He told jurors that Mr Frexit had come to England from Romania in 2014 to get work.

Mr McCrindle asked Dr Hathi: “He explained that, a week before his arrest, he was fired from work due to behaving oddly and coming across as tired and sick?”

Dr Hathi confirmed that was so.

He said Mr Frexit had told him that he began hearing voices in July, 2023.

Following his arrest, the court heard, Mr Frexit had been detained under the Mental Health Act and prescribed the anti-psychotic drug, haloperidol.

He had to be injected with haloperidol, rather than prescribed tablets, because his insight into his condition was poor and he was reluctant to be medicated, said Dr Hathi.

Judge Blake asked Dr Hathi whether the smirking described by witnesses following the assaults were indicative of sexual satisfaction.

Dr Hathi replied: “There is a level of euphoria associated with the offences - smirking can be associated with psychosis - from acting on delusions rather than having to hold them back.”

The trial continues.