A YOUNG mum pushing a buggy through a subway was assaulted by a stranger who pulled her knickers and leggings down to her ankles, a court heard.

The woman told a jury at Bolton Crown Court how she had been with her three-week-old baby and toddler son, walking through the subway at Kearsley roundabout, on the evening of July 5.

CCTV film played to the court showed Romanian born Alexandru Ghiba, just before the alleged attack, walking along Longcauseway, Farnworth.

He briefly turned into a ginnel next to the Starlight nursery and re-emerged into the street behind the woman.

The alleged victim told the court how she was concentrating on her children and did not take much notice of the man until she reached the subway tunnel at the roundabout under the A666.

She saw he had a tablet in his hands and was looking around.

“The way he was looking at the iPad it was as if he was following a sat nav or directions. I thought he was lost,” she said.

She passed him and was walking into the underpass chatting with her son, who was on a buggy board behind the pushchair, when she felt someone touching her from behind.

“I was approached and felt something at the bottom of my back,” she said. “It was just one swift movement of my pants and my leggings being pulled completely to the floor.”

The shocked 23-year-old mum added: “I used my right hand to try and pull up my underwear. It was at that point that I turned around to see him standing behind me.”

She said that the man was just an arm’s length away, but turned and ran when she started screaming.

And she claimed he made an obscene gesture towards her and was laughing as he fled.

CCTV from the nursery showed Ghiba walking back the same way he had come on Longcauseway.

The horrified mum called her mother who collected her daughter and the children and took them home. The victim then called police.

Cross-examined by Peter Gilmore, defending, the woman denied suggestions that the man had only bumped into her by accident in the subway and had not pulled down her clothing.

“My underwear and leggings were pulled down to my ankles,” she stressed.

Ghiba, aged 23, of Fairfield Road, Farnworth, was arrested three days later after he was spotted on Longcauseway by Danny Dean, who had seen CCTV footage of the suspect on social media.

Alison Mather, prosecuting, said Mr Dean called police and followed Ghiba to Kildare Street, where officers arrested the suspect.

Ghiba had been due to return to Romania the next day to visit family.

The building worker told police he had come to England in January this year in order to work and lived with a friend and two housemates in Fairfield Road.

He denies sexually assaulting the woman.

In a police interview claimed he had been walking home from work in Manchester because he had forgotten to take money for his bus fare and was using a map on his tablet to find his way.

He admitted being in the subway at the same time as the woman, but denied pulling down her clothing.

“Maybe I touched her but I never felt it,” he said.

And he denied making an obscene gesture, claiming he had just been touching spots on his face.

He said sexually assaulting a woman was not something he would do.

“If I wanted to see anything like that I could have looked online,” he said. “I have got a child back home. I have got a girlfriend back home. There is no need for me to do anything like that.”

Speaking through an interpreter Ghiba gave evidence in his defence, telling the jury that he had never been in trouble with the police before and was in England to earn money for his family.

“I try to send all my money to my mum and dad at home because my father is disabled and my mum is retired and her pension is very small,” he said.

“I didn’t arrive in this country to assault anybody or harm anybody.”

The trial continues and the of jury of eight women and four men is expected to retire to consider their verdict today.