Cradley Heath man, 63, jailed for train and tram sex assaults
A Cradley Heath man who sexually assaulted a teenage girl and deliberately rubbed his groin against a woman, has been jailed.
Michael Cosco, 63, of Halesowen Road, was jailed for two years and nine months following the incidents.
On March 13, an 18-year-old woman contacted police after getting off a Birmingham to Sutton Coldfield service, saying she felt 'violated' after a man stood next to her and rubbed himself against her shoulder.
Police were called again on March 15, by the father of a 13-year-old girl, who said his daughter had been touched inappropriately on her journey home from school the previous day and they had just seen the man who assaulted her arrive on a train at Aston station.
Officers immediately attended and arrested Cosco. Following enquiries, he was identified as a suspect for a number of other offences in February, where a man touched himself inappropriately on a platform at Birmingham New Street and exposed himself on a train between Five Ways and New Street.
He was later linked to a further incident in April, where a man rubbed his groin against a woman on a tram in Wednesbury.
Cosco was subsequently charged with three counts of sexual assault, two counts of outraging public decency and one of indecent exposure.
'Disgusting'
He admitted one charge of sexual assault against the 18-year-old and, following a trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court, he was convicted of the sexual assault against the 13-year-old, with the judge ordering the other charges to lie on record.
On October 5, he was jailed for two years and nine months – and placed on the Sex Offenders Register and handed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
DC Stuart Williamson, from British Transport Police, said: "We take all reports of sexual offences extremely seriously and we are grateful to those who came forward about this man’s disgusting behaviour.
“This allowed us to build a picture of his offending so we could put him behind bars, where he can no longer be a nuisance to passengers.
“This case should also give the public confidence to report such crimes to us, safe in the knowledge they will be thoroughly investigated and offenders pursued through the courts.”
