Kevin Barry

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

Kevin James Barry, a senior barrister and head of crime, admitted three charges of professional misconduct arising from two incidents of sexually motivated, non-consensual touching of Person A, a very junior tenant recently out of pupillage, in February and March 2018. The Tribunal found the misconduct fell in the upper range of significant culpability and harm, with the indicative sanction being disbarment. Aggravating features included the disparity in seniority, the Respondent's RASSO expertise (familiarity with consent), repeated misconduct against the same person, and a previous disciplinary finding for a similar offence against another young female barrister in 2014. Despite substantial mitigation (admissions, prompt apology, remorse, rehabilitation, therapy, charitable work, strong character references and delay), the Tribunal unanimously concluded suspension was insufficient and ordered disbarment, with immediate suspension pending appeal and no costs order.

Duties found breached:

• No unlawful discrimination or harassment

Aggravating factors:

• Disparity in seniority - senior head of crime against very junior tenant recently out of pupillage
• Respondent was a high-grade RASSO/sexual offences specialist well aware of the concept of consent
• Wrongdoing committed twice against the same person, demonstrating lack of insight
• Previous disciplinary finding for a very similar offence against a different young female barrister (2014, ref PC2018/0094/D3)
• Person A was specifically targeted
• Touching under clothing in the first incident
• Ignoring requests/no consent; persistent touching on first occasion
• Use of position of power over the victim