Attacked law student before groping another woman while she slept
A former trainee solicitor at Eversheds Sutherland has been jailed for eight years after he sexually assaulted two women, one of whom was a law student, during a house party in West London.
Tom Hagyard, now 29, was just a few weeks into his training contract in the international law firm’s London office when the attacks took place.
Hagyard, a first class philosophy graduate, attended a house-warming party in Fulham along with some of his new colleagues in October 2017.
That evening Hagyard attacked the law student, then in her 20s, while she was passed out on the party host’s bed, before going on to touch another student, also in her 20s, underneath her bra while she slept on a sofa.
The ex-rookie insisted the sexual activity was consensual, telling Isleworth Crown Court that both women were “enjoying it”.
But Hagyard was convicted of two counts of assault by penetration in relation to the first woman and two counts of sexual assault in relation to the second woman, the Mail Online reports. The jury failed to reach a verdict on one count of rape in relation to the first woman.
In their victim impact statements, the first woman explained how the attack had left her “with chronic stress, anxiety, insomnia and panic attacks”, while the second victim revealed how she had been “grieving for the loss of my old self” and had been treated for a paracetamol overdose in the run-up to the trial.
A spokesperson for Eversheds Sutherland confirmed Hagyard joined the firm in September 2017 as a trainee solicitor but was suspended immediately following his arrest. He did not resume his position and left the firm in June 2018.
