A high QC who stated he would “shag” the pinnacle of a rape charity “simply to have one thing over her” has been given a written ticking off by Scotland’s authorized watchdog.
The criticism was the one penalty imposed on Brian McConnachie after he despatched a sequence of improper messages, together with a sexually specific photograph of himself from the bogs of a excessive court docket constructing minutes after defending a rape accused.
The School of Advocates’ complaints committee stated McConnachie had already skilled “appreciable embarrassment” via
the scandal and “suffered professionally and personally”.
McConnachie’s messages had been shared by a whistleblower.
In October 2020, McConnachie despatched a textual content claiming one other QC had stated he needed to have intercourse with Brindley.
The committee break up this criticism into two elements and referred to the opposite QC – “a high-profile felony advocate” – as Mr A.
In a single textual content, McConnachie wrote Mr A had “as soon as stated to me he’d shag Sandy Brindley”.
He added in a second textual content: “I'd shag her, simply to have one thing over her, however I wouldn’t get pleasure from it.”
The School didn't reprimand McConnachie for the second message however dominated the primary textual content was discovered to be unsatisfactory skilled conduct as a result of it believed he was exhibiting “disloyalty” to a different advocate.
He was given a “extreme” written criticism because the committee felt that if the message was made public, Brindley “might nicely discover it extremely offensive, bringing the School into disrepute”.
It added “skilled hurt” is also carried out to Mr A. Rape Disaster Scotland stated the end result was “unacceptable”.
A spokeswoman added: “Mr McConnachie’s feedback had been certainly extremely offensive, demeaning and sexist.
“It's unacceptable that there was no acknowledgement by the School of the deplorable sexist and misogynistic nature of Mr McConnachie’s feedback and the way they mirror troubling attitudes in direction of girls.”
McConnachie additionally despatched a sexually specific photograph to a lady, declaring he was in an aroused state within the bogs of the Excessive Courtroom in Livingston.
The committee dismissed the criticism as the image was despatched one minute after the court docket day normally ended and it couldn’t be confirmed he was nonetheless engaged by a consumer.
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