Beer shampoo ends City lawyer’s career
A City lawyer who slapped a woman’s bottom and called her ‘an Australian slut’ is set to lose his home and his career.
Alastair Main, 35, has been fired by global finance firm Schroders following his conviction and will have his name placed on the sex offenders’ register for five years.
He had drenched the 27 year-old woman after she refused to give him a hug at the London Rowing Club’s Christmas dinner in Putney, southwest London.
Main, a former captain of the Club who once rowed for England, then called verbally abused his shocked victim.
He sat with her in an alcove known as the ‘Captain’s Corner’ before following her to the toilets, lifting up her skirt and spanking her repeatedly.
Main, is a former pupil at the £30,000-a-year Oratory School in Reading, claimed the slap was ‘cheeky’ and ‘flirty’ and denied sexually assaulting the woman.
The former Coutts banker admitted calling her ‘a slut’ but insisted he did not refer to her nationality.
Main was convicted of racially aggravated common assault and sexual assault after a trial at Wimbledon Magistrates Court.
He was handed a community order for 12 months and must carry out 200 hours unpaid work.
Main was also placed on the sex offenders’ register for five years and Judge Barbara Barnes also imposed a restraining order for five years preventing him from contacting the victim.
He was also ordered to pay £1,000 in costs and a £85 victim surcharge.
Main was sacked from his job at Schroders two days following his conviction earlier this month and will not be able to work in his chosen field again.
Wearing a smart blue suit and light blue tie he stood with his hands behind his back, nodding slightly as he learnt his fate.
Eloise Marshall, defending, said: ‘His fall from is quite something.
‘He will most likely lose his home.’
The court heard Main sold his car and has been supporting his wife and eight week old child on the proceeds.
‘The fall from grace which he has had, as a result of his behaviour that night, has been extreme.’
Judge Barnes told him: ‘I take into account they you have lost your job and cannot work in your chosen sector in future and the impact on your reputation, your family, friends and the public.
‘It would not be in the interests of justice to pay any compensation.
‘Money cannot pay recompense behaviour such as this and the victim would like to leave his all behind and has moved on.’
She made a restraining order saying: ‘It is necessary to provide protection for her.’
Prosecutor Paul Douglass said Main wanting to ‘demean’ and ‘humiliate’ the victim following her ‘sexual rejection’ of him.
Giving evidence from behind a screen, the woman told the court: ‘He came to the bar to ask for the hug.
‘I turned him down, I said “I don’t think so”.’
When Main overheard the victim talking about where she and her friend would go for a drink after the dinner, he allegedly remarked: ‘Off to find some men are we?’
She said: ‘His demeanour had changed, something had snapped, there was something angry about him.’
Main, who has an eight week old baby, followed her into a different room at the club, stood over her and told other guests to ‘get the f**k out’.
She said: ‘I knew his behaviour was getting worse, at that time Mr Main poured a pint of beer over me, I was drenched, my hair was so wet.
‘He pulled my hair slapping me on the head. He pulled my skirt up calling me a slut asking me if I was wearing any knickers.’
Main slapped her repeatedly around the bottom and thighs before another member of the club intervened.
As she left the club, Main followed her out and slapped her on the bottom on the stairs.
He the continued to call her a slut and yelled out: ‘You better start running because I am coming for you’.
Eye witnesses described Main shouting down the street: ‘You Aussie slut, you Aussie whore’ as she fled down the Embankment.
Main said: ‘As I walked past I slapped her on the bum. I was being flirty.’
He admitted being ‘7/10 drunk’ after dinner and a charity auction.
‘It was what you would expect for a dinner like that,’ he said.
Main claimed after chatting in the ‘Captain’s corner’ of the club the victim slapped him.
‘She slapped me around the face and tried to again but I caught it” he said.
‘She ran off and I hesitated for about 15 seconds probably, trying to work out what happened then I followed her.’
Main said he found her ‘crouched down and then I poured what remained of my beer straight on the top of her.’
‘I did it as I did not know what else to do, I was really upset.’
Main said he then went back and sat down at his table.
‘I did not say ‘Australian’, I called her a slut but I did not say ‘Australian’, it was a pathetic thing to do.’
He told he court that the woman then went into the ladies toilet ‘to sort out her hair or whatever’ and he got up and followed.
‘I was in shock about what happened and felt remorse as I had soaked her with beer, I wanted to say sorry to her.’
The banker said he grabbed her by the waist to make her face him so they could talk.
Ms Marshall said: ‘He wants to make it clear that he bears no anger or ill will towards anyone other than himself for the situation he finds himself in.
‘He lost his head and lost his judgement and it was wholly unacceptable.’
Ms Marshall said he was ‘a changed man’, adding:
‘The fall from grace that he has had has been extreme.
‘It is entirely possible he will lose his practicing certificate.’
Ms Marshall asked the judge not to put Main on the sex offenders register as it would ‘end his career’.
Main, who has no previous relevant convictions, was a national rowing champion in 2003 and represented England at that year’s Home International Regatta.
He joined the London Rowing Club (LRC) during the 2005 season after rowing competitively for Nottingham University, Notts & Union and Britannia Boat Club.
He retired from competitive rowing in 2006 having won the Thames Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta and was elected captain of the London Rowing Club for the 2013/14 season.
He lives with his wife Rebecca, who he met at university, in a £900,000 detached home.
Main is a graduate of the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Law School and was employed by global asset management firm Schroders, having previously worked for Coutts.
Main, of (56) Cobham Road, Kingston-upon-Thames, denied one count of racially aggravated common assault and one count of sexual assault.
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