A FORMER worker at an amusement arcade on the pier at Aberystwyth has been cleared of sexual assault after he told a jury he gave a woman “a friendly poke, but it went wrong".

Bartosz Miklaszewski, 39, found himself banned from Aberystwyth after the woman complained that he had put his hand on her thigh “and moved it upwards.”

Miklaszewski told a jury at Swansea Crown Court he had been “goofing around but hadn’t been looking properly and it all came out wrong”.

Miklaszewski, who has been living in Eccles, Manchester, since his arrest last December, denied sexual assault and was cleared following a trial.

Steven Rees, prosecuting, had told the jury how the woman had gone into the amusement arcade where Miklaszewski worked.

While she stood next to him, she told police, she felt Miklaszewski put his hand under her skirt and onto her inner thigh and then move his hand upwards towards her groin.

“She immediately slapped his hand away. She was shocked and reported the matter,” said Mr Rees.

Miklaszewski was arrested and bailed to an address in Manchester.

He told the jury he had never intended to touch her where he had done.

“I poked her with my finger but I wasn’t looking properly. I didn’t mean anything sexual,” he added.

Miklaszewski agreed that after the incident he had sent the woman a message via Facebook saying “sorry for any misunderstanding” but denied that was because he knew he was in trouble.