Graduate Tom Hagyard, 29, had just started at one of the worlds’ largest corporate law practice’s in the City of London and earlier that same night treated his parents and two sisters to a celebratory three-course meal with his first paycheck in the legal profession.
“It has been difficult,” he told the Isleworth Crown Court jury. “I lost my job at the law firm.
“I told the senior partner I had been arrested, but did nothing wrong and I had no idea it would take this long.”
Hagyard was questioned by the police on October 17, 2017, just two days after the party and on December 6, 2017 they told him there would no “no further action” regarding the rape allegation.
However, he was charged with assault by penetration and sexual assault nearly three years later and the rape count was added at his first Crown Court appearance.
“They suspended me on full pay and after a few months asked me to resign,” added Hagyard, who also told his parents and two sisters what happened.
“They were devastated of course. I told them all that had happened. I do believe I was innocent and had done nothing wrong.”
After graduating from university with a First Class philosophy degree he was just six weeks into a two-year training course with the City practice when another trainee at the firm invited him to her Fulham house-warming party.
In the early hours she invited him to sleep alongside her and her old private school friend, 26, who was already passed-out on the bed and claims she was woken by Hagyard raping her.
Now working for an intellectual property-specialist law firm she admits she was “nine or ten out of ten drunk” and did not consent to any sexual activity with the defendant.
“She was wearing black skinny jeans and a black lace top,” Hagyard told the jury. “She immediately rolled towards me and kissed me. It did surprise me, but I did like her and thought she was attractive.
“From our conversation earlier during the party I was not surprised she may have formed the same opinion of me and I kissed her back.
“I began to rub her back gently and she was moving in a way that indicated she was enjoying it. She rolled over so I could reach her and clearly it is what she wanted me to do.
“My hands went lower to her buttocks and legs over her clothing, we did not speak. She moved to allow me to reach the front of her body and I put my hands on her chest and I reached down to her zip fly, her button.
“She was moving with excitement and anticipation and I put my hand between her legs.
“She gasped quite loudly. I tried to give her pleasure and she was moaning.
“I began to take her jeans off and she lifted her hips.
“I was enjoying this moment because she was enjoying it. I would not have continued for a moment if she wasn’t.
“She opened her legs and bent her knees. She pushed my head down to the lower part of her body.”
Hagyard explained a consensual sex act then occurred, but did not lead to intercourse. “I was fully-clothed for the whole thing.
“I believe at some point she had an orgasm. She was tired, satisfied, finished and then I thought she did not want this to continue.”
Hagyard told the trial he decided to sleep on the living-room floor until the trains began running when the second woman, also 26, caught his eye.
“I saw her on the sofa and had got on well with her that evening. She said: ‘You can share the sofa with me.’ It was a very small sofa and I got on as best I could.”
Hagyard started massaging her chest. “She seemed to be enjoying it and was breathing pleasurably and I slipped my hand under her top and unbuckled her belt.
“At that point she said: ‘What are you doing?’ and I thought she was worried because we did not know each other very well and there were other people in the room.
“She was having second thoughts and I sought to reassure her that she did not need to worry and I kissed her ear.”
Prosecutor Richard Job asked Hagyard: “It was your good fortune wasn’t it that she enjoyed being touched by you as much as the first woman you touched-up and was equally as delighted as that first woman?”
Regarding the rape complainant the prosecutor asked: “It might be more accurate to say she had passed out? She was practically comatose, you must have seen that?
“She was in no position to consent to sex with you and you sought to take advantage of the poor state this woman was in.”
Hagyard denied the suggestion, replying: “I would never do that.”
“You gave up having sex with the sleeping woman and looked for another source of sexual relief,” suggested Mr Job. “Did you think these women would wake up to you pawing at their bodies and be delighted by that?”
Regarding the first woman Hagyard replied: “She was actively participating the whole time,” and regarding the second he said: “She invited me to join her on the sofa.”
Hagyard, of Fylde Road, Southport has pleaded not guilty to one count of raping the law student at the two-bedroom £700,000 Fulham Road address in west London on October 15, 2017, plus two counts of assault by penetration.
He has also pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexually assaulting the second young woman later that same evening.
Trial continues……………
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