Matthew Feargrieve

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

Matthew Feargrieve, an unregistered barrister called in 1996, was found to have committed professional misconduct under Core Duty 5 after being convicted of common assault by beating (s39 CJA 1988) for striking another man during a confrontation over a seat at the Royal Opera House on 7 October 2018. He was convicted on 16 December 2019 and fined £900 in the criminal court. The charge was proved beyond reasonable doubt based on the memorandum of conviction. The Tribunal proceeded in his absence. It found significant culpability and limited harm, placing the misconduct in the middle range, with no mitigation, insight, or remorse. The BSB was ordered not to issue him a practising certificate for 12 months and he was ordered to pay £1,560 costs.

Duties found breached:

• Uphold public trust in the profession

Aggravating factors:

• No cooperation with the disciplinary process
• No mitigation put forward
• No apology, insight, or remorse shown
• Conduct caused significant damage to public trust and confidence in the profession

Mitigating factors:

• No previous disciplinary findings