GUERNSEY LAWYER FOUND GUILTY OF SEXUAL ASSAULT FOR TOUCHING TWO WOMEN'S BUTTOCKS ON NIGHT OUT
A Guernsey lawyer has been found guilty of two counts of sexual assault after touching the bottoms of two women in a bar.The Royal Court heard how Steven Balmer, aged 39 and a senior associate for Carey Olsen, approached the two women who were with a group of people he knew at the Hook bar in St Peter Port on the evening of Saturday 29 March last year.
Over the course of the evening, the court heard how Balmer made repeated sexualised comments towards one of the women.
These included references to her breasts, her physique and the clothes she was wearing, including him asking her, "How fit do you need to be to cheat on your husband?".
CCTV footage shows the two women standing at the bar before Balmer touched one of them on the buttocks and the other on the lower backside.
The court heard how, in a police interview after the incident, Balmer said, "From my perspective, I appreciate it wasn't to cop and feel.
It was just to get their attention.
From my perspective, it wasn't anything sexual." The video footage of the women reporting the crime showed one of them in tears, giving a police officer a business card that Balmer had given her.
She said, "He's a lawyer, he probably knows judges.
A judge isn't going to listen to me".
She added, "How many times did I tell him I was married?
About 50." Balmer pleaded not guilty to the assaults, claiming he did not recall making sexualised comments and that the mood was benign, pleasant, and jovial, asserting that contact with the women was fleeting.
He will be back in Guernsey's Royal Court for sentencing in April.
