Stuart Cottis

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

Stuart Cottis, a solicitor, was convicted on 23 June 2023 and 27 August 2024 of multiple child sex offences, including attempted sexual communication with a child, sexual communication with a child, arranging/facilitating child sex offences, and sexual touching of a child under 13. He was sentenced to a total of 36 months imprisonment (2023) and a further 10 months consecutive (2024), plus an 11-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and indefinite barring. He admitted all allegations, breaching Principles 2 and 5. The Tribunal, dealing with the matter on the papers by agreed outcome, found the misconduct so serious that no sanction less than a strike off would protect the public and the profession's reputation. He was struck off the Roll and ordered to pay costs of £3,870.

Duties found breached:

• No conflict between current clients
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank

Aggravating factors:

• Convictions for serious child sexual offences involving multiple child victims
• Communications highly sexualised and for sexual gratification
• Offending repeated over multiple periods

Mitigating factors:

• Guilty pleas at the Crown Court
• Admitted all allegations before the Tribunal