Chinyere Inyama

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

Mr Inyama, a solicitor and Senior Coroner for the West London coroner area, was the subject of a police investigation into historic allegations of rape and sexual assault of a former client. During a 9 November 2021 call with the Chief Coroner's Office, he described the allegations as two incidents of "touching up," materially minimising their nature and seriousness. The Tribunal found he had deliberately provided inaccurate and misleading information to hide his embarrassment, breaching Principles 2, 4 and 5 and paragraph 1.4 of the Code, and made an express finding of dishonesty. Exceptional circumstances were rejected and he was struck off the Roll and ordered to pay £15,000 costs.

Duties found breached:

• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• No conflict between current clients
• Good faith and courtesy to colleagues

Aggravating factors:

• Proven dishonesty in material breach of obligation to protect the public and maintain confidence in the profession
• Conduct, though spontaneous, was deliberate and calculated
• Made a conscious decision during the call to underplay the seriousness of the allegations
• Extremely experienced solicitor and senior judicial office holder fully aware of his obligations
• Caused significant harm to the reputation of the profession

Mitigating factors:

• Single episode of brief duration
• Self-reported the matter to the SRA following his dismissal