A 54-year-old lawyer has been found guilty of groping a young woman on a coach, after he claimed that he assumed she had consented. Despite the pair not having even spoken to each other.

Hugh Wotherspoon, a patent attorney at international firm Ladas & Parry, was on a night bus from Edinburgh to London (query what a senior lawyer is doing on a night bus in the first place?). He found himself sitting next to a young lady, and rather than strike up a conversation decided to let his fingers do the talking. He stroked the unfortunate woman's leg because "I thought she might like it". She removed his hand, but he took this as no more than "a gentle, diffident brush-off" and renewed his fondling. Apparently "I did not have any reason to believe that another touch would be unwelcome".

    My wife doesn't understand me, your honour

The woman, who said that she didn't hit him or scream because she was worried about how he would react, told the driver when the bus stopped at Tebay Services. Wotherspoon was arrested, and this week a jury at Carlisle Crown Court found him guilty after less than an hour.

Judge Peter Hughes QC said it was a "worrying case" but Wotherspoon would probably be spared jail. He will be sentenced on 31st August.
 
Tip Off ROF

Comments