England: Barrister fined £1,000 after subjecting pupil to unwanted contact and verbal intimidation
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A “clearly drunken” barrister who subjected a pupil to “excessively physical and unwanted contact” and “uncomfortable, hostile and intimidating statements” at a social event has been fined £1,000.
Robert Kearney, who called to the Inner Temple in 1996, was found by a disciplinary tribunal to have “behaved in a way that was likely to diminish the trust and confidence which the public places in a barrister”.
The incident took place last October at an informal Bar Mess event in a restaurant.
A drunken Mr Kearney sat “uncomfortably close” to a pupil he had never met before and “put an arm around him”, the tribunal said. He then made “uncomfortable, hostile and intimidating statements”, including that he had “buttf**ked another chambers dry”.
He also asked the pupil his age before directing “an uncomfortable, hostile and intimidating question” to him, namely whether he had “ever taken a woman from behind”.
The tribunal decision is open to appeal.
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