A City banker who was accused of watching a woman use the toilet has been cleared of voyeurism, after telling a court he was in the ladies’ toilet to vomit after a drinking binge.
Alexey Ostapchuk, 32, was seen looking over the top of the cubicle at Cannon Street station by a woman who gone to use the facilities.
She told an Inner London crown court trial, sitting at the Royal Courts of Justice, that she was using the facilities on her way to a night out with friends in central London.
She noticed “some movement” at the top of the cubicle, she told jurors, and when she dashed outside in a panic she saw Mr Ostapchuk’s head looking over at her.
However under questioning she confirmed she had not specifically seen him looking at her when she was using the toilet.
Mr Ostapchuk, who joined Swiss bank UBS after studying at Oxford University, told police officers at the time of the incident: “I’m ready to pay a fine”.
He offered his apologies when the incident occurred, on December 10, 2021, but insisted he was only mistakenly in the ladies toilet.
At trial, he denied looking at the woman for his own sexual gratification, and said he had dashed into the toilet to vomit after drinking a large amount of alcohol while walking around the City.
The banker said he passed out in the cubicle, and was then looking over the top to see if anyone was in the toilet as he sought to make his exit.
Mr Ostapchuk, who lives in a £850,000 City apartment, left the station briefly to smoke, and returned to the same ladies toilet to use the facilities, he said.
He denied voyeurism and was acquitted at the end of a four-day trial.
