Woman QC ‘was willing partner’ in drunk romp

A SOLICITOR will not be charged with sexually assaulting a female barrister after police found two witnesses who said she was a willing partner in the drunken romp.

Graeme Stening, 52, was accused of sexual assault six weeks after the pair were caught in a clinch outside Waterloo station in London.

After both were held overnight in the cells, the woman QC, who was found with her knickers round her ankles, accepted a caution for outraging public decency.

Mr Stening refused to do so and faced trial – meaning the female barrister would have been named publicly in court.

But six weeks after the rush-hour liaison on August 20, she tried to retract her acceptance of the caution, claiming that following a boozy lunch with Mr Stening she would not have been able to consent to sexual activity and must have been assaulted by him. This gave her anonymity as a potential sex assault victim.

Mr Stening, right, a father of three whose wife Sian is standing by him, insists their encounter was consensual. But as a result of the allegations, he spent months in fear of prosecution until police confirmed yesterday that he would not be charged.

His solicitor said yesterday that the woman should be investigated for perverting the course of justice.

A source told the Mail Mr Stening and the QC met for a boozy lunch at her instigation – and ended up so drunk they were found by police at 7pm leaning on a wall.

The source said: ‘She had her knickers round her ankles, while he was exposed and touching himself with one hand, and her with the other.’

After her night in the cells to sober up, he refused to accept a caution for outraging public decency, but the QC signed it.

She had legal advice before signing the caution – in which a suspect admits a criminal offence and accepts a police warning without going to court.

She later said alcohol and medication had left her incapable of consenting to sexual activity. But officers found two independent witnesses who confirmed Mr Stening’s claim that she played a willing part.

Police decided there was not enough evidence to give to the Crown Prosecution Service after rejecting the barrister’s appeal to reconsider her allegation.