A senior City solicitor accused of setting a teen apprentice sexual tasks wanted to hire her because she was the ‘fittest’ candidate, a disciplinary tribunal heard today.
Oliver Bretherton, 41, allegedly gave the 18-year-old A-level student instructions to perform daily sex acts in the office and encouraged her to send him explicit messages and pictures.
The woman, known as Person A, claims that at a leaving drinks Bretherton stuck his hand up her skirt and kissed her and would throw ping pong balls down the front of her dress at work.
Married Bretherton denies multiple allegations of sexual misconduct made by three junior female colleagues at the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal in the City of London.
Giving evidence today, a former colleague told how then director Bretherton made the case for Person A to join international law firm Gowling WLG after interviewing her.
City lawyer Oliver Bretherton, 41, gave an 18-year-old junior colleague sexual tasks and threw ping-pong balls down the front of her dress, a disciplinary tribunal has heard
He told the panel that Bretherton had reported back that the teen was not only ‘very confident and very intelligent’ but she was the ‘fittest’ of the applicants.
The male lawyer added: ‘I do remember when he came back he told people in the team, another associate as well, that Person A was attractive.’
Person A alleges that Bretherton told her that he wanted to ‘f***’ her in the office and instructed her to masturbate every day in the office toilets and again before she went to sleep each night.
She said: ‘Every time I did this, I would have to tell him about it.’
She also said Bretherton engaged in a ‘sexual fantasy relationship’ with her, bombarding her with X-rated instructions and encouraging her to talk about her sexual experiences.
She said answering his ‘horrible and awful’ messages could last from 8am to midnight, and he once asked her to name the ‘kinkiest’ thing she had done. She added: ‘It was psychologically exhausting. I was describing things I had never done.’
She said he later made her delete WhatsApp conversations in front of him and warned her that if anyone found out ‘it would be my career that would be affected and not his’.
He allegedly sent her a video of himself performing a solo sex act, told her what to wear, demanded to know where she was and who she was with, timed her toilet breaks and made her fetch the ping-pong balls when he missed his target.
Nimi Bruce, representing the Solicitors Regulation Authority, previously told the tribunal that Bretherton said to the 18-year-old he wanted to ‘f*** her and he would do it in the office and he didn’t care if there was a glass wall’.
He allegedly gave her tasks ‘relating to his sexual gratification’.
Bretherton abused his position to suggest she was ‘beholden’ to him, Ms Bruce said, adding: ‘It was planned and deliberate. His attempts to conceal his actions were painstaking and meticulous.’
He is said to have abused Person A for more than a year.
A colleague told the tribunal that Bretherton and Person A initially appeared to have a ‘happy and flirty relationship’, adding: ‘I never noticed anything amiss in the office.’
But he said that it was the talk of the leaving drinks how close the pair were at the bar with Person A stood between Bretherton’s legs.
Another colleague allegedly observed: ‘This is an uncomfortable watch. She is flirting with the director.’
The witness said: ‘Mr Bretherton’s hand was very close to her rear or lower back’. He added that another lawyer looking on exclaimed ‘Look where his hand is!’.
He said that when the pair disappeared for half an hour in the direction of the toilets, there was some speculation that they had ‘snuck off together’ to kiss.
In her statement recalling the night, Person A said: ‘I remember Oliver put his hand up my skirt…it was uncomfortable what he was doing.
‘He put his hands in between my legs, not in a sexual way but just holding my thigh and then he kissed me on the lips. There was a lot of tongue…It was a horrible experience.
‘It made me feel quite sick and panicky. I sobered up quite quickly.’
The colleague said that in subsequent days Bretherton admitted he had been drunk and had little recollection of events.
He said: ‘Mr Bretherton said that he would distance himself from Person A given people had noticed them being close at the bar.
‘He said to me that he did not want to put himself in that position again, being that drunk around Person A.’
Bretherton today admitted ‘betraying’ his wife by pursuing the ‘sexual fantasy relationship’ in the office with the school leaver half his age.
Bretherton claims he was in a ‘consensual sexual fantasy relationship’ – despite being the woman’s boss and more than twice her age
A colleague told the tribunal one of the reasons given by Bretherton for why she should be hired by Gowling WLG (pictured) was that she was the ‘fittest’ of all the candidates
He told a tribunal he regrets exchanging explicit photos and videos with the 18-year-old – but denied his conduct was ‘appalling’.
They included a picture of her in her underwear and a video of him performing a sex act on himself, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal heard.
Bretherton, who was then 36, admitted to the tribunal that he sent the teenager a link to leaked nude pictures of Love Island star Megan Barton Hanson.
He kissed the legal apprentice at a leaving drinks and persuaded her to spread her legs and show him her knickers in the office – which anyone walking past his room could also have seen.
Bretherton said that he had been sexually excited when the new recruit working for him told him about kissing another woman.
He admitted that the pair discussed ‘sex, what it would feel like and what it would taste like and different positions’ and asking her to masturbate in the office toilets, which she says she did.
But he insisted that he had a ‘consensual sexual fantasy relationship’ with the woman, known as Person A.
And he denies charges of acting without integrity in breach of the professional code of conduct for solicitors.
Giving evidence on day seven of the hearing in the City of London, Bretherton admitted that there had been a ‘power imbalance’ between himself as a then director at international law firm Gowling WLG and the teen.
Nimi Bruce, for the Solicitors Regulation Authority, put it to him that his admissions about his sexually motivated conduct were ‘extraordinary and appalling’.
Bretherton denied that his behaviour had been appalling or ‘controlling’, explaining: ‘I had a relationship with someone who I viewed at the time as an adult who was mature, who was very confident, who was very vocal in what she wanted me to know about her sex life previously.
‘And at the time I believed that it was something that not only did she want to engage in but that she was actively encouraging and instigating.
‘I don’t think that appalling is the right word but I definitely did activity that I very sincerely regret.’
He conceded: ‘I knew it was inappropriate. I was married. I don’t think I can sit here morally and say it was a positive thing.
‘I sincerely regret it and the effect it has had on loved ones. The morality from my perspective was that I was betraying my wife.
‘I definitely did not behave in a way that I am proud about.’
He said that he ‘shut down’ their relationship as soon as Person A told him it was making her uncomfortable and was ‘very surprised’ by the animosity she subsequently showed towards him.
Ms Bruce told the tribunal that Bretherton admitting he sent the teen a link to leaked nude pictures of Love Island star Megan Barton Hanson ‘speaks volumes’ about his attitude to women.
But he said: ‘She had the choice to click on that link. If she felt uncomfortable, she would not have clicked on it.’
He admitted sending a video of himself performing a sex act beneath his underpants.
He said of the X-rated pictures and videos they swapped: ‘It was a two-way relationship. She would ask me and I would ask her.’
Recalling one incident, he said: ‘She came into my room. She had rotated her chair and I had looked up her skirt and I encouraged her to do that.’
He admitted taking a risk because there was a ‘clear line of sight’ for anyone walking past the office but denied that he had ‘crawled around on the floor’
He recalled conversations about Person A purchasing and using a sex toy but denied he had given her the money to buy it.
Describing their kiss at a leaving drinks, he said: ‘It was very consensual. We used our tongues. She was above me, sitting on my lap. She leant down to kiss me. I returned the kiss.’
Person B, then a 23-year-old trainee, alleges that Bretherton behaved ‘like a jealous boyfriend or ex-boyfriend’ as he messaged her obsessively.
She says that that Bretherton, who had introduced his wife and newborn baby to her, hailed her as ‘hot’ and said she was ‘competing to be my favourite blonde’.
Person C, then a 21-year-old apprentice, alleges that Bretherton reduced her to tears on a night out after a work party by dropping ice cubes down the back of her dress and commenting on her cleavage.
She told the hearing that she felt sexualised, saying: ‘My cleavage is mine and not for him to comment on.’
Bretherton, who was married and aged 36 at the time, is accused of abusing his seniority to take advantage of the three woman.
His alleged misconduct is said to have begun in March 2017 – the month he married in a traditional Scottish wedding complete with bagpipes and stovies in front of 120 guests – and lasted until January 2019.
He denies the allegations of sexual misconduct and acting without integrity.
Chloe Carpenter, representing Bretherton, has told the tribunal that he is a champion of equality issues in the workplace and that his wife Laura Bretherton is a successful City lawyer in her own right.
Bretherton is now a banking and finance partner with ‘virtual’ law firm Gunnercooke.
The hearing continues.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk
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