Topshop boss Philip Green’s U.S. sex assault trial has been postponed until next month, DailyMail.com can disclose.
The Arcadia billionaire was due in court in Tucson, Arizona, on Thursday to face charges over a series of alleged assaults on his personal trainer between January 2016 and January 2018.
But with days to go, lawyers for the fashion mogul asked to have the hearing pushed back until February 20 to give them time to gather more evidence.
On Tuesday, Green’s $68million Gulfstream G650-ER jet was parked on the tarmac at Nice airport in France, close to Monaco where the luxury yacht he shares with wife Tina is moored.
Billionaire Philip Green’s sexual assault trial in the U.S. has been postponed until next month, DailyMail.com can reveal
Charged with four counts of assault, the Topshop boss is accused of ‘repeatedly fondling’ the bottom of Pilates coach Katie Surridge, 38, (pictured) and making sexual comments towards her even after being told to stop
According to flight records, the plane had recently returned from a trip to Kenya where Green is thought to have been holidaying.
Surridge claims that the assault happened between January 2016 and January 2018
This is the second time the billionaire businessman’s case has been put back: he was originally due to appear at a hearing on October 23 but the date was changed to January 16 following a request from his team.
On that occasion, his Phoenix-based attorney Michael Kimerer said his team needed the extra time to conduct interviews with potential witnesses.
Court documents obtained by DailyMail.com show that no such reason was given this time but that the request was granted, unopposed by the Pima County prosecutor Laura Deakin.
Green, 67, was arrested at his Tucson-area vacation home within the luxury Canyon Ranch property in May last year.
Court documents seen by DailyMail.com show he was charged with four misdemeanor counts of knowingly touching ‘with the intent to injure, insult or provoke’ – each of which carries a maximum penalty of 30 days in jail and a $500 fine plus a year’s probation.
Green has pleaded not guilty to all four counts and has strongly denied alleged victim Kathryn Surridge’s account of what happened.
The 38-year-old told Pima County cops that the tycoon had groped her on two separate occasions and had behaved ‘like a creepy old man’.
The British Topshop boss was due in court in Tucson, Arizona, on Thursday to face charges over a series of alleged assaults on his personal trainer
In a police interview, the married personal trainer said she had initially been afraid to upset the ‘high roller’ and had feared for her job at the luxury Canyon Ranch health resort where she worked out with clients for $169 per hour.
On the first occasion, on January 5, 2016, Surridge claimed Green had grabbed her bottom during a workout session.
She claims he assaulted her for a second time on January 8, 2018, telling police: ‘This time, instead of slapping my butt, he puts his hands, like, he wraps his hands around my waist and then grabs my butt cheek and just puts his hand there and just holds it there as he’s hugging me.’
Surridge said he also patted her on her bare stomach as she demonstrated an exercise and reported the second incident to a manager the same day. She informed police of the alleged attack the following year.
One of the alleged assaults was witnessed by a neighbor in Canyon Ranch, Kimberly Khoury, who told the Telegraph that Green had acted in an ‘octopus like’ manner towards Surridge and had ‘grab[bed] her butt’.
Khoury declined to comment when approached by DailyMail.com but is listed as a witness for the prosecution in court papers.
Green was arrested at his Tucson-area vacation home within the luxury Canyon Ranch property (pictured) in May last year
He has pleaded not guilty to all four counts and has strongly denied allegations. Pictured with wife Tina and daughter Chloe
Surridge is not the first woman to have accused Green of sexual assault. In November 2018 former Topshop manager Auna Irvine, 34, claimed the billionaire would slap her backside and comment on her weight during her time working for the company.
Irvine, who worked for the Las Vegas branch and now lives in Marina del Rey, California, told the Telegraph she ‘lived in fear’ of her boss who would often introduce her as his girlfriend.
She said he would also phone her in the night to tell her she was ‘naughty’. Green has strongly denied the allegations.
Irvine came forward a month after Green was named in Parliament as the prominent businessman facing a string of workplace grievances ranging from sex assault to harassment.
He had taken out an injunction in London’s high court in a bid to prevent the media reporting the claims but was outed by ex-minister Peter Hain in the House of Lords.