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Rugby player who groped cyclist is spared prison
‘I don’t recall anything’ pleaded businessman at Old Bailey
A BUSINESSMAN'S brief encounter with a stranger landed him in the dock at the Old Bailey where a judge reprimanded him for “disgraceful behaviour”.
Rugby player Stephen Howlett, six foot one inches tall and powerfully built, tried to ease the agony of an aching tooth and gum infection by having a couple of drinks at lunchtime.
And when the 40-year-old, of Camden Road, Camden Town, left the bar he made an “inexplicable” sex attack on a stranger.
He grabbed the 23-year old Highgate woman’s breasts as she locked up her pedal cycle outside the Holloway pub near the junction with Camden and Holloway roads.
And when a traffic warden intervened and went to her aid, Howlett knocked his cap off.
The woman was making a phone call to her boyfriend when Howlett, who had been drinking with pals at a rugby club do the previous night, wrapped his arms around her waist.
“She felt two arms wrapped round her and as he pulled her towards him she felt he was sexually aroused,” said prosecutor David Radcliffe.
She sought the help of a traffic warden Harris Golap who became involved in a violent confrontation with Howlett in which punches were thrown. The warden responded by kicking him between the legs. Plain clothes police officers Simon Hackworth and George Thompson came across the scuffle.
Howlett was wrestled to the ground and handcuffed. Soon afterwards he was locked in a cell.
Howlett explained that he had taken painkillers for his toothache and infection. He then consumed beer and whiskey.
The jury heard him insist: “I had an argy-bargy with the warden. I thought he was a nutter. He started shouting at me. I’m not an aggressive man, I’m a friendly, peace-loving chap.”
Howlett said he “did not remember” doing anything to the cyclist. “I’m not a thug. I don’t see any reason to go about hugging strangers. I don’t recall grabbing anyone’s boobs,” he told a jury.
He was convicted of the sexual assault but cleared of battery on Golap.
Judge Richard Hayward studied probation reports on Howlett before sparing him a jail sentence. He was given an 18 months community order, ordered to pay £1,000 costs and £500 compensation to the woman.
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