The “boisterous” excuse of a drunken IT specialist who groped female trainee’s bottom was described by a Crown Court judge as “Boris Johnsonesque.”

Business development director Michael Swain, 35, had been drinking heavily with colleagues at crazy golf venue Swingers, in London's Square Mile, during a company bonding session prior to the incident. 

When they continued drinking at the nearby Slug & Lettuce pub he came behind the young woman, put his hand between her legs and groped her bottom.

Swain, of Woodgrange Drive, Southend, had fought the case for four years, but after two hours of damning evidence changed his plea to guilty of one count of sexual assault at the pub on September 13, 2019.

Inner London Crown Court Judge Jane Rowley said: "It’s a man’s world isn’t it?"

“It is sad that he is still in denial. He still says it was not a sex assault, not sexually motivated.”

She said: “It is almost a Boris Johnsonesque defence,” as she sentenced Swain adding: “We are loaded with money. It’s just a bit of slap and tickle.”

When the victim reported Swain to her bosses the following Monday he remained with the company on a final warning after apologising during disciplinary proceedings, but she was so upset she resigned.

He had been married to wife Claudia, who supported him in court, for twelve months at the time he committed the offence.

“He’s been married a year and he is sexually assaulting a woman,” said Judge Rowley. “He is there groping women. Good luck to his wife, people like that don’t change their spots”.

The judge said she could understand why the woman who had raised the complaint did not want to stay working for the firm “with this gentleman Lording it up over her, after sexually assaulting her.”

When questioned by police Swain told officers: “If I touched her bum it was due to drunken boisterousness.”

In her victim impact statement the young woman said she was unable to find a similar job in the industry and abandoned her career plans in London and said: “I don’t think Mr Swain has any idea of the consequences of his actions and the impact it has had on my life."

Swain’s lawyer Sue Obeney said: “He does not come across as an arrogant man. He admitted as soon as this happened that he behaved badly.

“It was a one-off under the influence of alcohol, boisterous behaviour.”

Swain is no longer with the company and has set up a recruitment firm and has sought counselling.

On Monday this week he was sentenced two years imprisonment, suspended for two years, ordered to pay £2,500 costs and £500 compensation to the victim.

Swain must also sign the sex offenders register for ten years; attend thirty-five days of the Horizon sex offenders programme and complete thirty days of a rehabilitation activity requirement.

Judge described Westcliff man as "foolish" 

The judge described the Westcliff man who groped a female colleague as a "foolish man" who had "arrogantly pleaded not guilty." 

Inner London Crown Court Judge Jane Rowley said Michael Swain had denied the incident "in the face of so many witnesses who saw what he did." 

She said: “The arrogance of the man, he had the choice of a police caution and he turned it down. He was a foolish man not to take that caution and it is going to cost him a lot.

“The taxpayer should not pay a penny towards this man’s foolishness of trying to defend the undefendable.”

Judge Rowley told him: “On that day you were the worse for wear for drink and in front of others groped another woman before turning your attention to the complainant.

“There was a big difference in the power and influence you held in that organisation and unsurprisingly the victim left the company and the career opportunity she had.

“The impact on her was great and the pre-sentence report says you are unable to fully accept what you did and in February, 2020 you pleaded not guilty in the face of overwhelming evidence.

“There was humiliation of her. She was drunk and vulnerable and you were in a position of responsibility over her.

“There was a hierarchy and you were over her.”