Edward Nicholas Proffitt

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

The respondent solicitor was convicted at Cambridge Crown Court on 12 August 2016 on two counts of making an indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph of a child, and was sentenced to a three-year community order, a five-year sexual harm prevention order and placed on the Sex Offenders Register for five years. He failed to notify the SRA of his conviction within 7 days; the SRA learned of it via a press article. He admitted all allegations. The Tribunal found he failed to uphold the rule of law, acted with a lack of integrity, and failed to maintain public trust, and breached his reporting obligations. No express finding of dishonesty was made. The Tribunal struck him off the Roll and ordered costs of £1,524.06.

Duties found breached:

• Cooperate openly with regulators
• Integrity
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• Self-report to the regulator
• Uphold public trust in the profession

Aggravating factors:

• Extremely serious criminal offence exploiting vulnerable children
• Conduct was repeated (two counts)
• High culpability - direct control, experienced solicitor
• Ought reasonably to have known conduct breached obligations to protect the public and reputation of the profession
• Significant harm to reputation of the profession, foreseeable

Mitigating factors:

• Previously long unblemished record
• Co-operated with the regulator and made early admissions
• Showed genuine remorse and insight
• Spoke candidly before the Tribunal
• Failure to report conviction was not deliberate