Lawyer fired after colleague lied he sexually assaulted her wins court case after CCTV shows it was ‘consensual’

A lawyer who was fired after a co-worker lied that he “sexually assaulted” her has won an unfair dismissal case after surveillance footage showed their encounter was consensual.

Jamshid Rustambekov was accused of sexually assaulting a co-worker after he dragged her into a disabled toilet during a work evening last July and then touched and kissed her against her will.

Mr Rustambekov was investigated over her claims and another allegation that he had inappropriately touched a second colleague that evening.

While CCTV emerged in September showing the encounter was “consensual” as she willingly kissed him and went to the bathroom with him, London firm Fieldfisher LLP fired him a month later for gross misconduct.

The tribunal found that in light of the “indisputable” footage, it was clear the woman’s allegations were “manifestly false” and criticized the law firm’s handling of the case after it failed to challenge “inconsistencies in her evidence”.

Mr. Rustambekov, who has worked in Fieldfisher’s dispute resolution department since 2019, is currently in line for compensation.

The tribunal in central London heard that Mr Rustambekov liked to be perceived as a “feminine” at work and engaged in “flirting”.

It was established that “no one took Mr. Rustambekov’s flirtatious banter seriously or as a form of sexual harassment.”

Mr Rustambekov and his colleagues regularly played Snog, Marry, Avoid – a game in which people rate which of their colleagues they would like to sleep with – but it would be a “joke”, the court heard.

The woman who accused him of corrupting her – whose name has not been released – said of Mr Rustambekov: “I would have topped his list many times over.”

During Fieldfisher’s investigation into Mr. Rustambekov, one female director, Elora Mukherjee, said: “I believe that if (Rustambekov) had the opportunity to fuck somebody, he would.”

Others said that Mr. Rustambekov liked to be “the center of the party.”

The tribunal was scathing about how he regularly asked women if they wanted to date him and told them: “I’ll take care of your every need – I’ll pour you prosecco.”

In 2023, Mr Rustambekov claimed to have sexually assaulted a female colleague during a work evening at the trendy Savage Garden bar on the roof of the Hilton Hotel in London.

The woman, who was named only as a colleague, said: “He kept trying to hit on me – I always said no, not interested, and he’s married.”

“(He was) telling me over drinks how angry he is that I always reject him because he tries so hard and I’m never interested.

“I said again that I was just not interested and thought that would be the end of it.

“He said, ‘Come on, you always turn me down, it’s so frustrating. Why don’t you go into the bathroom and fuck me in there.”

“Later in the evening I went to the bathroom (and) when I opened the door to go out, he was waiting for me.

“He grabbed me, took me to a cubicle for the disabled and locked the door. I walked up to the lock and he pinned me against the wall.

“I kept trying to reach for the lock and he pushed me away from it. He kissed me and I didn’t want that to happen.

“He tried to put his hand under my skirt. I tried to move away.”

The woman said another colleague started calling her name and they left the cab.

One colleague also claimed that about six months ago, Mr Rustambekov urged her to cancel her Uber after a night out and “come back to the office with him”.

Mr Rustambekov was investigated over her claims and another allegation that he had inappropriately touched another colleague on a night in July.

In August 2023, he was suspended.

The lawyer denied unwanted advances and claimed that one colleague “confided to him that she had relationships with three men at the firm and that the one she really liked was married and didn’t reciprocate.”

In September 2023, the bar where the alleged attack took place provided a written review of what the surveillance cameras showed.

The report said: “According to CCTV, it appears both parties have reached an agreement. Woman A initiates the hug, Man A respects it.

“They hug for a while, then start kissing and A man gently walks towards the disabled toilet, hugging. Woman A did not resist, no force was used.”

Ramatu Banga, a partner at the firm who presided over the disciplinary hearing, concluded that although the woman had committed perjury, she had not done so intentionally.

Despite the firm’s inconclusive findings on the toilet incident, Mr Rustambekov was dismissed for gross misconduct in November 2023.

The law firm came to this conclusion after concluding that he pestered a woman to go out with him and touched a second colleague inappropriately.

At the tribunal, Employment Judge Farin Anthony said that after the CCTV came to light, Fieldfisher should have disregarded everything the woman said because it was not credible.

“I find it absolutely astonishing that Ms Banga did not think it was important to cross-examine (the woman) about the discrepancies in her evidence with the CCTV footage,” Judge Anthony said.

“(The woman’s) version of events immediately prior to the incident with the accessible toilet is completely unsupported by the description of the CCTV footage and is completely unbelievable.

“I believe that the sequence of events indicates that (the woman) knew that her complaint that she had been grabbed and dragged into an accessible toilet was patently false.

“I believe that her false testimony regarding the accessible toilet incident was not an error and did not arise out of confusion.

“What could be the motive? The lie could only have been to protect her own interests and her reputation, especially given that (another colleague) witnessed her leaving the accessible toilet with (Mr Rustambekov).”

The judge said the harassing claim was not credible as Mr Rustambekov had merely offered to give her a ride home and that he had merely touched the other woman on the shoulder.

Compensation will be determined at a later date.