An internationally renowned violinist allegedly groped a prospective student during a trial lesson at the Royal College of Music, a court was told.
Jan Repko is accused of asking the “gifted” 18-year-old woman to “stand straight like a plank of wood” while he unbuttoned her trousers and assaulted her in the prestigious school.
Southwark crown court was told that South Africa-born Repko asked the prospective student, “May I?” before allegedly touching her intimately during the incident in July 2022.
Repko, 66, of Fulham, southwest London, denies sexual assault and assault by penetration.
Nneka Akudolu KC, for the prosecution, said that the alleged victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, continued playing because she was “shocked” and did not know “how to respond to the situation”.
Akudolu said: “She said he placed one hand on her waist and another on her bottom. At this point he was standing behind her.
“She could, she said, feel his breath near her ear. He placed his hand over her crotch area before undoing her trousers. She made a mistake in the piece and then froze. She said he invited her to sit down and he asked her how the experience had felt, to which she replied, ‘uncomfortable’.”
The teenager claimed that Repko had been complimentary of her musical ability — describing her talent as “really rare”, the jury was told. He was said to have informed her that “very few people can say something through their music”.
Repko has led music masterclasses around the world, was a previous concertmaster of the Northern Philharmonic Orchestra in the Netherlands and is a co-founder of the Netherlands’ youth string orchestra.
The court was played a recording of the young woman’s police interview, during which she took long pauses as she recounted the alleged assault.
She said: “I was just thinking this can’t be normal, this can’t be happening to me. As if nothing had happened he walked over to the other side of the room and got into his chair. As he got into the chair he asked me how I found it.”
She told detectives that Repko had insisted that the Royal College of Music would be the best place for her to study to enhance her ability.
Akudolu said the complainant “had only told her mother that he had touched her bottom because she was so embarrassed and ashamed”.
In the recording, officers asked her why she had not initially revealed the intimate nature of the assault. She replied: “I had the words in my head but I just couldn’t say it.”
Days later the complainant told a friend that Repko touched her bottom and she was advised to contact the police, the court was told.
The friend said the woman was “reluctant because the defendant was so influential, and that if she made a complaint it could jeopardise her career”.
When Repko was arrested, he described the allegations as “absurd”. Akudolu said that the defendant has insisted that “anyone could have walked into the room at any time”.
The trial continues.
