Business owner Samuel Walsh, 45, was on the Island for the Cowes Classics Week, as a guest of the Royal Yacht Squadron, a court heard.
After the first day of sailing, in the early hours of July 9, 2023, he was drinking at Vectis Tavern, Cowes, and that is where he assaulted the woman in a ‘power play’.
‘Happily married’ Walsh, who lives in a £1.2 million home in Wandsworth, and is the owner of property developers Integro Companies Group, pleaded not guilty to a charge of sexual assault.
He was found guilty by a jury trial at Isle of Wight Crown Court in October 2024.A court heard how Walsh took hold of a woman’s hand and made her touch his crotch without her consent.
At Walsh’s sentencing at Portsmouth Crown Court, prosecutor Jonathan Underhill said: “He said ‘send that to [your boyfriend]’ or ‘that was a message to [your boyfriend]’.
“Her shock, the Crown says, is obvious from the CCTV.”
The incident and its aftermath was caught on the pub’s CCTV.
Mr Underhill added: “He was asked to leave almost immediately after the incident took place, and he did so.”
In a statement read to the court on her behalf, the victim described the ‘anxiety, shame and guilt’ the incident made her feel.
She said: “I believe it was a power play and there’s deep-rooted misogyny at the heart of these actions.”
“In essence, my life has been on hold.
“However, when the guilty verdict was delivered I felt a sense of relief that I had been heard by our justice system.”
Defending, Sallie Bennett-Jenkins said: “In the cold light of day, one can look at this as a split-second chronic error of judgement.”
She added that Walsh has ‘no recollection of physical contact’ with the victim, and that the incident was a ‘misjudged joke’.
Ms Bennett-Jenkins said that Walsh had undiagnosed ADHD at the time of the assault.
“It was of extremely short duration with an individual describing it as being the blink of an eye,” she said.
Ms Bennett-Jenkins said that Walsh tried to apologise at the time, but was stopped from doing so by a witness, and he also wrote her an apology letter at a later point.
Sentencing Walsh, Recorder James Bromige said the assault was ‘rude, lewd and demeaning’.
In police body-worn footage recorded the night of the incident, the Recorder said Walsh was ‘significantly worse for wear’, noting that this would have exacerbated his then-undiagnosed ADHD.
He said: “The nature of this offence was one that violated [the victim], it was crude and offensive and in my judgement it is deserving of punishment.”
Walsh was sentenced to a two-month community order and has been ordered to pay a victim surcharge and costs, totalling £4,380.
