A senior associate at Trowers & Hamlins is on trial for groping an off-duty police officer.

The London-based real estate specialist, 34, is accused of sexually assaulting the woman at around 11.30 pm on a Thursday night train from Euston to Milton Keynes in January last year. 

Prosecutor Peter Grice said that as the train left the station, the woman noticed the man was "staring at her intently" and smiling, and "she believed he was flirting with her".

Grice said that the lawyer positioned himself so he could watch her through a gap between two seats, then "made a kissing-type face" and "raised two fingers and put his tongue between them". Grice said when she told the lawyer, "Go and fuck yourself", he replied, "You would like that wouldn't you?"

Texting her partner, reports the Daily Mail, she wrote, "Creep moved to stare at me. Reaching hands back. Just getting ready to break his fingers if he touches me". Another message said, "He is shit faced". When, she said, he reached over and "put his hand on my thigh and moved it upwards" near Watford Junction, she took a picture of his hand and then grabbed his fingers "and bent them back". She said, "I told him to get his fucking hands off me and if he touched me again I would break his fucking fingers". She told the court that fellow passengers then invited her to sit with them. 

The train was stopped at Tring after the woman's partner called the British transport police. The lawyer was taken to Aylesbury police station, where he told police he had been drinking heavily. A spokeswoman for Trowers said, "Both the firm and the Solicitors Regulation Authority are aware of the case. This is an ongoing case and due to confidentiality, we are unable to provide further information or comment at this stage". The trial continues.

[This story was amended on 22/5/23 to remove the lawyer's name at his request. ROF obliged as he was found not guilty, and having this search result hanging over him for all eternity in those circumstances seemed disproportionate.]

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