Tribunal fines solicitor £25k after sexual assault convictions for pub groping
Solicitor Thomas Harland Cadman has been fined £25,000 by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) after being convicted of three sexual assaults on women at a village pub.
The 45-year-old lawyer, who once held a senior role as Deputy Director General at the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, admitted that his behaviour amounted to professional misconduct and a breach of public trust.
The tribunal heard how, on the evening of 29 August 2021, Cadman groped two women at the Red Lion pub in Castle Eaton, Wiltshire. Both victims, identified only as Person A and Person B, gave detailed accounts to police describing how Cadman touched them without consent.
One victim told investigators she was speaking to her son when she suddenly felt “two hands grabbing both my buttocks.” When she turned, Cadman was standing directly behind her. Moments later, he repeated the assault.
The second woman reported that Cadman approached her while her husband was briefly away, grabbed her buttock and tried to pull her face towards him as if to kiss her. She pushed him away, but he returned minutes later and brushed his hand across her buttocks again. The landlord asked him to leave the premises.
The victims later described in court how the assaults left them shaken, anxious and fearful in their own community. Both women continue to feel unsafe when Cadman is nearby, according to their victim impact statements.
Embed from Getty ImagesCadman was arrested and charged following his own self-report to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). In February 2022, he pleaded guilty at Swindon Magistrates’ Court to three counts of sexual assault under the Sexual Offences Act 2003. The following month, he was sentenced to a nine-month Community Order, required to attend up to 20 days of rehabilitation, and fined £300 for each offence. He was also ordered to pay £95 in victim surcharge and £85 in prosecution costs.
Despite the criminal convictions, the magistrates accepted submissions that the assaults fell within the lowest category of offending, citing Cadman’s previous good character and professional references. They chose not to commit the case to the Crown Court and did not place him on the sex offenders register.
However, the SDT stressed that its role was different from the criminal courts. The panel said that criminal convictions for sexual assault, even at the lowest sentencing level, amounted to “very serious misconduct” for a practising solicitor.
Cadman admitted breaching Principle 5 (integrity) and Principle 2 (maintaining public trust) of the SRA Principles 2019. His behaviour, the tribunal said, inflicted serious reputational harm on the legal profession, undermining public confidence.
In mitigation, his counsel, Geoffrey Williams KC, submitted psychiatric evidence relating to Cadman’s health at the time, as well as testimony from character witnesses. The tribunal heard that Cadman had no memory of the assaults, expressed remorse, wrote letters of apology to the victims, and voluntarily gave up his practising certificate.
Probation officers described him as compliant, remorseful and now presenting a “low risk of serious harm” to the public. Fourteen personal references portrayed him as honest and gentlemanly, with the assaults characterised as wholly out of character.
Despite this, the tribunal concluded that only a substantial penalty could reflect the gravity of the misconduct. Striking him off the roll, it decided, would be “disproportionately severe,” but a financial sanction was unavoidable.
The panel imposed a £25,000 fine – categorised as a mid-range penalty for “very serious” conduct – and ordered him to pay £3,600 in costs.
Cadman, admitted to the roll in 2008, now faces a tarnished professional reputation and no current practising certificate. For the victims, the tribunal acknowledged, the harm and anxiety caused by his actions remain real and lasting.