City solicitor Alastair Main will face sentencing on 26 January after being found guilty of racially aggravated common assault and sexual assault against a 27-year-old Australian woman. Mr Main trained at Ashurst but left the firm in 2012, and was employed as legal counsel at Schroders at the time of the incident. He has reportedly since left the company.  

Mr Main was accused of lifting up the woman’s skirt and slapping her repeatedly at a Christmas party they both attended in December last year. While Mr Main denied that he had lifted up the woman’s skirt or slapped her, he admitted to pouring ‘what was left’ of his beer on top of her head and to calling her a ‘sl—t’. The woman claimed in her complaint against Mr Main that he had called her an ‘Australian sl—t’, though the lawyer denied this claim. Judge Barnes of the Wimbledon Magistrates Court told Mr Main that she did not find him to be ‘a credible or convincing witness’ to the night’s events, noting his level of inebriation and that the woman’s account of his behaviour had been corroborated by additional witnesses.

Sources: Legal Cheek; Australasian Lawyer