Daniel David Pipe

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

Solicitor Daniel David Pipe was convicted in September 2021 of attempted sexual communication with a child under 16, having engaged in overtly sexual online communication with an undercover police officer posing as a 13-year-old boy, including sending explicit images and his address. He received a two-year Community Order and was subject to notification requirements for five years. He admitted breaching Principles 2 and 6 of the SRA Principles 2011. The Tribunal assessed culpability and harm as very high, found limited insight, and concluded that despite strong personal mitigation only striking off would protect the reputation of the profession. No finding of dishonesty was made. He was struck off and ordered to pay costs of £7,350.

Duties found breached:

• Integrity
• Uphold public trust in the profession

Aggravating factors:

• Conduct involved commission of a criminal offence that crossed the custody threshold
• Misconduct was deliberate and calculated over a 90-minute period
• Sent sexual images and his home address to a person he was told was 13 years old
• Communicating with a vulnerable person by reason of stated age
• Continued to seek to justify his conviction; limited insight

Mitigating factors:

• No previous disciplinary findings; hitherto unblemished 17-year career
• One-off incident with no repetition in the 4 years since
• Self-reported conviction to the SRA and cooperated with investigation
• Engaged thoroughly with rehabilitation programme; low risk of repetition
• Strong character references; highly competent and skilled solicitor
• No Sexual Harm Prevention Order imposed by the criminal court