Henry Charles William King

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

A barrister admitted two charges of professional misconduct arising from sexually touching a colleague (Person A) without consent and making unwanted remarks at a Chambers Christmas party in December 2023 while heavily intoxicated. The Tribunal found both charges proved. Misconduct fell in Group B (sexual nature), lower range with indicative sanction of 12-24 months suspension, but exceptional mitigation justified a reduction. By a 4-1 majority the Tribunal imposed a 3-month suspension (postponed to 1 April 2025) plus £2,000 costs plus VAT. No dishonesty was found.

Duties found breached:

• No baseless or threatened misconduct report

Mitigating factors:

• Immediate admission of misconduct and sincere apology accepted by Person A
• Prompt self-report to the BSB
• Full cooperation with Chambers and BSB investigations
• One-off incident, out of character
• Demonstrated insight and genuine remorse
• Voluntary steps to prevent recurrence and address alcohol misuse; contribution to support group for barristers
• Good character with no previous disciplinary findings
• Exceptional personal mitigation, overcoming significant adversity; outstanding contributions to profession and mentoring