Tube sexual assault: Millionaire businessman groped woman's bottom 'over a few minutes' on train

James Froomberg sexually assaulted a young woman on a London Underground train (PA Wire/PA Images)

A millionaire businessman who groped a young woman for several minutes on a busy Tube train has been found guilty of sexual assault.

James Froomberg, 62, a former National Lottery commissioner, rubbed the woman's bottom with his hand as she travelled with her boyfriend on the Central Line.

A jury at Blackfriars Crown Court took two hours and 20 minutes to convict him on Tuesday afternoon.

Froomberg, of Edgware, north London, had denied the charge and claimed he was asleep at the time of the assault on 1 May.

He stood quietly in court and showed no reaction as the verdict was announced.

Froomberg is to be sentenced on 12 October after the judge Rajeev Shetty has received pre-sentence reports.

The judge said it was "unlikely" the leisure and property industry director would be imprisoned and that he could be facing a community order.

He told Froomberg, who was bailed until sentencing: "I cannot promise you, as you will appreciate, what the sentence will be, but I have alluded to what the appropriate starting point might be."

In summing up, the judge had reminded the jury of the woman's claim that "a person touched her bottom... over a few minutes and squeezed her bottom".

He said: "The prosecution say that the person who did this was the defendant. It was intentional."

Froomberg had said he was sleeping during the evening rush-hour journey and that he "cannot have done what he is accused of".

Both the woman and her boyfriend said that two other passengers - a man and a woman who have not been identified and did not give evidence in court - had seen Froomberg touching her.

The victim's boyfriend pursued the businessman after he left the Tube train and held him outside Mile End station until police arrived.

Froomberg told the court had just come from a long steak and chips lunch with former colleagues and had probably drunk up to two bottles of wine.

He only remembered leaving the lunch and being jolted awake on the Tube, the told the court.

He said he then rushed away but did not believe he touched anyone.

Froomberg has more than 30 years experience in the private, public and consultancy sectors, and was chairman of Young Enterprise London by the time he was appointed as a National Lottery commissioner in January 2008.

He was also a corporate development director at Wembley PLC and a partner at KPMG.