Two women were sexually assaulted by a man who exposed himself while waiting in the queue to see the Queen's coffin lying in state, a court has heard. Adio Adeshine, 19, allegedly exposed himself and groped two women, and pushed into the mourners from behind as they stood in line at Victoria Tower Gardens on Wednesday evening.
He was arrested following the incident but not before a long chase that saw police struggling to nab him. Following his appearance before Westminster Magistrates' Court today, Adeshine was remanded in jail. He faces two counts of sexual assault and two counts of violating a court order prohibiting sexual harm.
Dirty Mindset
After exposing himself Adeshine groped two women from behind who were also waiting in the queue to see the Queen lying in state. He then leapt into the River Thames, a court heard today. Police chased him but were unable to trace him. After a long hun, Adeshine emerged from the water, following which he was arrested.
After appearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Friday and being charged with two charges of sexual assault and two counts of violating a sexual harm prevention order, Adeshine was remanded in custody.
"Just two days ago the defendant was part of the queue to see the resting in state of Queen Elizabeth II," said prosecutor Alex Alawode in court.
"The defendant repeatedly followed one of the complainants. The complainant believes he had pushed in the queue and noticed he kept getting close to her, which she found alarming."
"By 7:30pm the defendant was getting closer to her. She believed he was touching her back and she described the defendant pushing into her."
Then Adeshine allegedly exposed his penis to a woman. According to the prosecution, she informed her sister of what had occurred via a note.
Then, people in the queue stood between them to put some space between the complainant and the defendant. The court was told that Adeshine left the group before allegedly acting similarly with a separate woman.
"The defendant was described as making attempts to get away. He went into the River Thames to evade the police before being arrested coming out of the river," Alawode added.
Chaotic Scenes
Adeshine of Walworth denied two sexual assaults and two breaches of a court order at Westminster Magistrates Court today. This comes as thousands continue to wait in queues for over 12 hours to get one last glimpse of Queen Elizabeth II before she her final journey starts on Monday.
The public queue to attend the Queen's lying in state started moving again on Friday afternoon after a 40-minute pause when it reached full capacity.
Mourners waited for up to 14 hours in a queue in London on Friday afternoon to see the Queen's coffin in Westminster Hall. This queue was formed to enter a second queue, which itself was formed to enter the main "Elizabeth Line" queue.
Tens of thousands of people flocked to Southwark Park on Friday in remarkable scenes to enter the beginning of the main queue for the lying in state, but officials had to close it at 10 am for "at least six hours" due to the length of the line.
In order to ease congestion in the line ahead, which had grown to a length of almost five miles, thousands of mourners were placed in a holding area inside the park. The park's gates were then closed, forcing those outside to form a third group.
Former England captain Beckham joined the queue at 2 a.m. and waited with everyone else until he was seen waiting at around 12:30 p.m. today. His agent told MailOnline that he had stood in line with the general people and said there was an atmosphere of "mutual respect" at first because no one wanted to photograph the 47-year-old celebrity.
