A trainee solicitor at one of the world’s largest law firms, who sexually assaulted two sleeping graduate women at a work colleague’s house-warming party, was jailed for eight years today.
Tom Hagyard, 29, had just started at the City of London commercial law practice when he molested a “nine or ten out of ten” drunken law student in the party host’s bed.
However, he told the jury the sexual activity was consensual: “I was enjoying this moment because she was enjoying it. I would not have continued for a moment if she wasn’t.”
Minutes later Hagyard, who graduated with a First Class philosophy degree, groped a medical student, who was asleep on the living-room couch, telling the jury: “She seemed to be enjoying it.”
Recorder Simon Russell Flint QC told him: “Nobody thought it was going to be anything other than a normal party for young people to get to know each other with drinking and dancing and fun until your actions brought to an end how that night would be remembered.
“The first victim had a lot to drink and was put into bed and out of kindness and regard for your comfort you also were invited to sleep in the bed, although why you were still there at 5am when others had left has not been explained.
“You almost immediately started to touch her. This young lady was sound asleep when you began to touch her sexually and she did not kiss you or give you any encouragement.
“She had no idea what was happening to her and could not identify who it was. You were a stranger to her and she did not consent to what you were doing and neither did you believe she was consenting.
“You went ahead and did what you wanted to do to this woman and getting little or no satisfaction went looking for another victim.
“You went into the living-room, where the second woman was asleep on the couch and you pushed aside her shirt and bra and touched her breast. You woke her up by your hand being on her breast.”
Earlier that same night Hagyard treated his parents and two sisters to a celebratory three-course meal at a Michelin-starred restaurant with his first pay cheque in the legal profession before making his way to the £700,000 Fulham Road flat in west London.
Hagyard, of Fylde Road, Southport 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 jury failed to reach a verdict on one count of raping the first women and were discharged.
In her victim impact statement the first woman said: “I cannot unhear the claims made by his defence during the trial that I consented even though I was unconscious. This is re-traumatising and haunting.”
She said the night left her “with chronic stress, anxiety, insomnia and panic attacks,” adding: “The nightmares I have in relation to the assaults are impossible to shake off.
“The defendant’s actions have destroyed my trust and personal faith in other people. I have felt ashamed that I did not fight back and still berate myself about it.”
The second woman, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, said: “Tom Hagyard, I don’t hate you. You are a stranger to me.
“I hope you can explore why you are the way you are and seek resolution so you do not harm anyone else. I am grieving for the loss of my old self, I miss her deeply.”
She revealed that she stared at a train station’s railway tracks and was treated for a paracetamol overdose at the very hospital where she trained as the trial date approached.
“The last four years have been torture with the anticipation of being in court.”
Isleworth Crown Court heard he arrived at the party with a bottle of wine, which consumed, on October 15, 2017 and in the early hours the first 26 year-old victim woke with Hagyard on top of her.
“We got very drunk and I don’t remember a lot. I took myself to bed and I woke up and there was a boy sort of on top of me,” she told the trial.
Now working for an intellectual property-specialist law firm the woman added: “I was going in and out of consciousness and did not think I could move. I froze a bit, I didn’t fight him off or anything.
“I remember trying to push him away. I was staring at the wall for a while.
“I felt very drunk, nine or ten out of ten drunk. I kept my eyes closed for a bit and I remember feeling confused.
“He was on top of me and I was in pain. I felt like I could not move or fight him off and my memory goes in and out, I have flashes.”
Hagyard claimed the second woman, also 26 and now a fully-qualified doctor, who attended the same £15,000 a year south coast private school as the first victim invited him onto the sofa, where he began 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,” Hagyard told the jury.
However, prosecutor Richard Job said: “She had also had a bit to drink and was sleeping in her clothes. She was woken at 5.30am by someone touching her chest.
“The top of her bra had been pulled to one side and a man’s hand was on her breast. She felt his mouth next to her ear and the words: ’Shush. It’s okay.’
“He was crouched by her and having touched her breast he moved his hand to her belt and began to undo the buckle.
“She was scared and she got up and went quickly to the host’s bedroom.”
Recorder Russell Flint told Hagyard: “You have concocted an account you hoped would be accepted and you have caused each of them severe psychological harm, plus harm to your more than loving supportive family.
“Your family will have to face the reality their son, who was destined to be a highly successful solicitor, is a sex offender, who preyed on two young women.
“You have ruined your professional ambitions. You passed your exams, got your First Class degree and passed your law course and despite enormous competition secured this training contract.
“This has all gone, due to your conduct in that hour that has caused so much devastation to peoples lives.
“This is a tragic case for those two ladies and tragic for what you have brought on your family.”
Hagyard complained about how his potentially “distinguished career” was destroyed before it even started. “It has been difficult. 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.
“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.”
Hagyard claimed the party host invited him to sleep in her bed, where the first woman was already passed out and the host remained asleep during the consensual sexual activity instigated by the victim.
“She was moving with excitement and anticipation and I put my hand between her legs,” he told the trial, believing there was mutual physical attraction. “She was moving with excitement and anticipation and I put my hand between her legs.”
Hagyard always insisted full sex never occurred. “I was fully-clothed for the whole thing.”
He said the second woman caught his eye when he crashed out in the living room. She said: ‘You can share the sofa with me.’ It was a very small sofa and I got on as best I could.”
Hagyard’s lawyer Karina Arden told the court: “This is a terrible tragedy not just for the complainants, but for the defendant and his family, who have accompanied him throughout the trial.
“His mother and father have been in tears much of the time and his girlfriend intends to stay by him during his time in prison.
“His professional life that he worked so hard for is over. He has changed from being a confident young trainee solicitor who was ambitious and dreamed of a career in commercial law.
“For the last year he has worked in a cycling business and he has suffered everyday for the last four years and regrets the incident that night in that flat and it will remain with him for the rest of his life.”
Hagyard will remain on the sex offenders register indefinitely and must serve two thirds of the sentence before he can be considered for parole.
