Michael Philip Pulsford

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

The Respondent, a solicitor admitted in 1980, was convicted of 16 counts of historic indecent assault on children committed between 1974 and 1989, receiving a combined custodial sentence of 8 years 8 months. He admitted that by virtue of these convictions he breached Principles 2 and 6 of the SRA Principles 2011. The matter was dealt with on the papers by way of an agreed outcome. The Tribunal found the convictions amounted to a gross breach of trust and that public confidence required removal from the Roll. He was struck off and ordered to pay costs of £1,300.

Duties found breached:

• Integrity
• No conflict between current clients

Aggravating factors:

• Repeated serious sexual offending against children
• Gross breach of trust over a position of power and influence
• Grave harm caused to six victims

Mitigating factors:

• Guilty plea at earliest opportunity in criminal proceedings
• Full cooperation with SRA investigation
• Otherwise unblemished career as a solicitor
• No further offending since 1989