Thomas Harland Cadman

Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision

Mr Cadman, a solicitor, was convicted on his own guilty pleas at Swindon Magistrates' Court of three offences of sexual assault (s.3 Sexual Offences Act 2003) committed against two women on 29 August 2021 at a village pub. He was sentenced to a 9-month Community Order, fines and costs in the criminal court. The SDT found the facts and breaches of Principles 2 and 5 proved on his admissions. There was no finding of dishonesty. Considering culpability, harm, aggravating and mitigating factors (including medical evidence heard in private, remorse, insight, cooperation and an unblemished record), the Tribunal found striking off disproportionately severe and imposed a fine of £25,000 plus costs of £3,600.

Duties found breached:

• Integrity
• Uphold public trust in the profession

Aggravating factors:

• Convicted of criminal offences of a sexual nature (three offences of sexual assault against two victims)
• Harm caused to Person A and Person B as set out in victim impact statements
• Severe damage to reputation of the profession

Mitigating factors:

• No previous disciplinary findings; previously unblemished career
• No repeat of misconduct over two years
• Genuine insight and remedial steps taken (counselling, alcohol abstinence)
• Prompt self-report to the SRA and full co-operation
• No dishonesty and no attempt to conceal conduct or blame others
• Wrote letters of apology to victims before police interview
• Strong character references (14 testimonials)
• Voluntarily did not renew practising certificate
• Assessed by Probation as low risk of serious harm
• CPS placed offending in lowest category of seriousness; minimal sentence imposed by Magistrates
• Medical/health context (heard in private)