Alan Wheetman

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

Alan Wheetman, a barrister called in 1995, was found to have breached CD5 (Charge 2) by engaging in sexual misconduct towards Person A, a young female trainee police officer at a Magistrates' Court, including commenting on her appearance, telling her he had found her Facebook profile, showing her semi-nude photographs from his photography website, and offering to photograph her nude using crude language. Charge 9 was dismissed, charges 6 and 13 dismissed for no case to answer, and no evidence was offered on charge 16. The Tribunal classified the conduct as Group B sexual misconduct in the lower culpability/harm range. No dishonesty was found. He was ordered not to be issued a practising certificate for 24 months (immediate effect), required to take a BSB EDI course if returning, and to pay £3,000 costs.

Aggravating factors:

• Disparity in age and seniority between respondent and Person A
• Recklessness towards Person A, a junior police officer attending court for the first time
• Respondent's responsibility for the situation which arose
• Some level of sexual motivation indicated by references to physical appearance and talk of nude modelling
• Use of crude language

Mitigating factors:

• Some insight and regret with benefit of hindsight
• Self-referred to the BSB and cooperated
• No previous disciplinary record
• No longer in practice (without practising certificate since January 2023) and living on dwindling capital