Woman QC in train station tryst can keep her ID secret
She says daylight romp was assault ... but ‘attacker’ won’t face charges
A FEMALE QC who admitted a public romp with a lawyer outside a London train station is to keep her anonymity.
The barrister accepted a caution but later claimed she was sexually assaulted – meaning her identity stays under wraps for life.
However, after an 11-month investigation police have decided not to take action against her ‘lover’, a married City lawyer. Legal figures last night said questions needed to be asked about the QC’s continuing anonymity and said she was ‘ abusing legislation’ designed to protect sex attack victims.
She also remains anonymous while she is investigated by the Bar Standards Board for belatedly reporting a caution, even though barristers are required to promptly tell bosses about
‘Complete abuse of legislation’
any incident that could bring the bar into disrepute. She only reported her now-disputed acceptance of a caution in the last couple of months, after the Mail revealed she had not done so.
Speculation surrounding the QC’s identity has even led to unfounded and incorrect speculation in legal and political circles that she was Marina Wheeler, the barrister wife of Boris Johnson. Senior legal figures yesterday questioned the QC’s continuing anonymity.
Nick Freeman, who has long campaigned for anonymity for men accused of sexual assault until conviction, submitted his own complaint to the Bar Standards Board, adding: ‘ Without question she should be named. It’s a farcical situation.’
Human rights lawyer Mark Stephens said: ‘If people are perceived to be abusing the anonymity laws around allegations of sexual assault there will be calls for alleged victims to be stripped of their anonymity.’
The incident outside Waterloo station occurred in rush-hour last August. The barrister spent a night in a cell and accepted a caution for the drunken public tryst with lawyer Graeme Stening – but then tried to withdraw her admission and claim she had been his victim.
Police have now decided not to proceed with a prosecution against Mr Stening, although the QC is challenging that decision, as well as attempting to quash the caution she accepted for outraging public decency. Mr Sten- ing still faces trial for outraging public decency and at a hearing in April, his lawyer named the QC in open court.
Solicitor Amarjit Bhachu suggested she only belatedly contradicted her own admission of public sex by claiming she had been assaulted because she knew the law guarantees automatic lifetime anonymity.
Those who make false allegations of sex attacks can be named if they are later charged with perverting the course of justice. Mr Bhachu, who is making a formal complaint to the Director of Public Prosecutions about the handling of the case, told Camberwell magistrates in April: ‘What is the complainant, a prosecution witness or a co-defendant?’
Married father- of- three Mr Stening, 51, has had the threat of jail hanging over him for months since the boozy encounter. A source close to the case said it happened after the pair went for a lunchtime drink and ended up so drunk they were found by police mid-romp.
The source said she accepted a police caution for outraging public decency but Mr Stening refused. ‘It was only after the police decided he was going to go on trial... that the QC realised her name would come out, and only then that she tried to withdraw her acceptance of a caution... while also claiming she’d been assaulted,’ said the source. ‘This woman’s case is a complete abuse of legislation.’
Mr Stening, whose wife Sian is standing by him, is said to have ‘been through hell’. They married in 1989 and have two daughters and a son. He works as in-house lawyer for private equity firm Doughty Hanson and lives in a £2million house in Windlesham, Surrey. The QC has not responded to requests for comment.