LONDON (AP) - Former England midfielder Paul Gascoigne has been charged with sexually assaulting a woman on board a train.
The 51-year-old Gascoigne, who has struggled with alcohol and mental-health problems, was arrested at Durham station on Aug. 20. British Transport Police said Monday that Gascoigne “was charged via postal requisition with one count of sexual assault by touching.”
Gascoigne is to appear at a nearby court on Dec. 11.
Writing on Twitter, Gascoigne said he was innocent. In a tweet that was soon deleted, Gascoigne said he had stepped in to comfort a woman after she was called “a fat cow.”
Gascoigne also said the officers who charged him asked for “selfies” and an “autograph.”
“Why if I did wrong,” he asked in the tweet.
Gascoigne also said he was called fat when he was young and that his niece and nephew were hospitalized because they refused to eat after being called fat at school.
He ended another tweet by saying “deep inside I’m hurting.”
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