Scots law-trained Guernsey lawyer Steven Balmer found guilty of sexually assaulting two women in bar

The Royal Court found Steven Balmer, 39, a senior associate at Carey Olsen, guilty of two counts of sexual assault arising from an incident at the Hook bar on 29 March last year.

The court heard that Balmer approached two women who were part of a group he knew and made repeated sexualised comments to one of them over the course of the evening. These included remarks about her breasts, physique and clothing, as well as asking: “How fit do you need to be to cheat on your husband?”

The woman texted her husband during the encounter, messages which were read in court. They included: “He’s just spent the last 10 minutes telling me how fit I am,” and later: “He gives me serial killer vibes, he’s still going.”

CCTV footage played to the court showed Balmer standing beside the women at the bar before touching one on the buttocks and the other on her lower backside.

In a police interview, 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.”

Body-worn camera footage of the women reporting the incident showed one of them in tears. She handed officers a business card Balmer had given her and 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 denied making sexualised comments and told the court the conversation had been “benign, pleasant and jovial”. He said he did not recall touching the women, despite being shown CCTV footage.

Balmer studied at Edinburgh University and thereafter the LLB at Aberdeen University. He worked in Aberdeen’s law faculty for a year before he spent three years in the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service. He then worked for four years at HBJ Gateley before he joined Carey Olsen in 2018.

In a statement Carey Olsen said: “As a leading professional services firm, we operate to high ethical standards. We do not tolerate any conduct of a sexual nature which has the purpose or effect of violating someone’s dignity, or which creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment, whether inside or outside the workplace.”

It adds: “We confirm that, as a matter of policy, we do not comment on any matters involving individual employees.”

He is due to be sentenced at the Royal Court in April.