Andrew McNeill

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

The Respondent solicitor was convicted in June 2020 of three counts of making indecent photographs of a child (23 indecent videos found, mostly Category A) and one count of producing Class B cannabis. He was sentenced to 8 months' imprisonment suspended for 18 months, a £150 fine, 80 hours unpaid work, placed on the Sex Offender Register for 10 years, and subjected to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for 10 years. On an agreed outcome dealt with on the papers, the Tribunal found the misconduct extremely serious and breached Principles 2 and 6, ordering him struck off the Roll and to pay agreed costs of £1,290. No express finding of dishonesty was made.

Duties found breached:

• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank

Aggravating factors:

• Misconduct involved criminal convictions, one serious enough to warrant a custodial sentence
• Indecent images included 15 Category A files (most serious)
• Use of privacy cleaners and VPNs to disguise online activity

Mitigating factors:

• Offending described as an uncharacteristic aberration with no long-standing history; images downloaded over a four-week period
• No extensive collection and no sharing of images with others
• Self-referral to the Aurora Project for counselling/rehabilitation
• Left his firm voluntarily to insulate it from adverse effects
• Admissions made and cooperation via agreed outcome