A lawyer who was dismissed after a female colleague lied that he had ‘sexually assaulted’ her has won an unfair dismissal case after CCTV showed their meeting was consensual.
Djamshid Rustambekov was accused of sexually harassing his colleague after pulling her into a disabled toilet during a night out and then touching and kissing her against her will in July last year.
Mr Rustambekov was investigated over her claims and another allegation that he inappropriately touched a second colleague during the same night out.
While CCTV footage emerged in September showing the encounter was ‘consensual’ as she had kissed and willingly gone to the bathroom with him, London firm Fieldfisher LLP fired him a month later for serious misconduct.
A tribunal ruled that in light of the ‘irrefutable’ footage it was clear the woman’s allegations were ‘patently false’ and criticized the law firm’s handling of the case after failing to question ‘the discrepancies in its evidence’ drawn.
Mr Rustambekov, who worked in Fieldfisher’s Dispute Resolution department from 2019, is now eligible for compensation.
The tribunal in central London heard that Rustambekov liked to be seen as a ‘ladies man’ at work and indulged in ‘flirty banter’.
It was found 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 where people judge which of their colleagues they would like to sleep with – but it was said to be ‘for fun’, the tribunal heard.
The woman who accused him of abusing her – and who has not been named – said of Mr Rustambekov: ‘I would be at the top of his list many times over.’
During Fieldfisher’s investigation into Mr Rustambekov, a female director, Elora Mukherjee, said: ‘My view is that if [Rustambekov] if he had the chance to sing with someone, he would.”
Others said Rustambekov enjoyed being the “center of the party.”
The tribunal found out how he regularly asked women if they wanted to go out with him, telling them: ‘I will take care of all your needs – I will pour you prosecco’.
In 2023, during a work night out at the trendy bar Savage Garden on the roof of a Hilton Hotel in London, it was alleged that Mr Rustambekov sexually assaulted his colleague.
The woman – identified only as Colleague One – said: “He has routinely tried to approach me – I have always said no, not interested and he is married.
‘[He] said to me during drinks that he is angry that I always reject him, that he tries so hard and that I am never interested.
‘I said again that I just wasn’t interested and thought this would be the end.
‘He said, “Come on, you always reject me, it’s so disturbing. Why don’t you come into the bathroom and fuck me there?”
‘Later that evening I went to the toilet [and] when I opened the door to come out, he was waiting for me.
‘He grabbed me, took me to the disabled cabin and locked the door. I went for the lock and he pressed me against the wall.
‘I kept trying to get to the lock, but he pushed me away. He kissed me and I didn’t want it to happen.
‘He tried to move his hand under my skirt. I tried to leave.”
A female colleague accused the married senior employee of pulling her into a disabled toilet on a night out and then touching and kissing her against her will, the tribunal was told. CCTV footage later emerged showing that the meeting took place ‘by mutual consent’.
The woman said another female coworker started calling her name and they left the booth.
Colleague One also claimed that about six months earlier, Mr Rustambekov had urged her to cancel her Uber after a night out and ‘go back to the office with him’.
Mr Rustambekov was investigated over her claims and another allegation that he inappropriately touched a second colleague during their night out in July.
He was subsequently suspended in August 2023.
The lawyer denied making any unwanted advances and claimed that Colleague One had ‘confided in him that she was in a relationship with three men from the company and that the one she really liked was married and had not reciprocated’.
In September 2023, the bar where the alleged assault took place provided a written overview of what camera images showed.
The report said: “According to CCTV, there appears to be a consensus on both sides. Woman A initiates a hug, Man A respects this.
‘They cuddle for a while and then start kissing and Male A gently points to the disabled toilet while hugging. Woman A does not resist, no violence was used at all.’
Ramatu Banga, a partner at the firm who chaired the disciplinary hearing, concluded that although the woman had provided false evidence, she had not done so deliberately.
Although the company made no conclusive findings about the toilet incident, Rustambekov was fired in November 2023 for serious misconduct.
The law firm came to this conclusion after concluding that he harassed the woman into coming with him and inappropriately touched the second colleague.
At the tribunal, after the CCTV footage emerged, Judge Farin Anthony said Fieldfisher should have ignored everything the woman claimed because it was not reliable.
‘I find it completely strange that Ms Banga did not think it was important to ask questions [the woman] in relation to the discrepancies in her evidence against the CCTV footage,” Judge Anthony said.
‘[The woman’s] version of events just before the accessible toilet incident is completely unsupported by the description of the CCTV footage and is completely unbelievable.
‘I think the sequence of events indicates this [the woman] knew that her complaint about being grabbed and pulled into the accessible toilet was patently false.
“I am of the opinion that her false evidence in relation to the accessible toilet incident was not a mistake and did not arise from confusion.
‘What could be the motive? The lie could only have been intended to protect her own interests and especially her reputation [another colleague] had seen her leaving the accessible toilet together with her [Mr Rustambekov].’
The judge said the insulting accusation had not been made because Rustambekov had simply offered her a ride home and that he had only touched the second woman on the shoulder.
The compensation will be determined later.