Chinyere Inyama

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

Mr Inyama, a solicitor and Senior Coroner, deliberately misled the Chief Coroner's Office during a 9 November 2021 call by describing serious sexual offence allegations (including rape) against him as merely 'touching up', minimising their nature and seriousness to hide his embarrassment. The Tribunal found this breached Principles 2, 4 (dishonesty) and 5 and paragraph 1.4 of the Code. It rejected his submission of exceptional circumstances and 'moment of madness', finding the dishonesty of a senior judicial office holder warranted striking off. He was struck off the Roll and ordered to pay costs of £15,000.

Duties found breached:

• Honesty
• Integrity
• No conflict between current clients
• Good faith and courtesy to colleagues

Aggravating factors:

• Proven dishonesty
• Conduct was deliberate and calculated despite being spontaneous
• Extremely experienced solicitor and senior judicial office holder fully aware of his obligations
• Breach of trust placed in him by the Chief Coroner's Office
• Significant harm to reputation of the profession

Mitigating factors:

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