William John Randall

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

William John Randall, admitted as a solicitor in 1981 but never practising, was a sitting magistrate when he committed 18 child sex offences over 12 years, for which he was convicted in November 2017 and sentenced to 11 years' imprisonment. The Tribunal found this conduct constituted professional misconduct under s 419 of the LPA, rendering him not a fit and proper person to engage in legal practice. It recommended his name be removed from the roll and ordered him to pay the applicant's costs on the standard basis.

Duties found breached:

• Personal probity and fitness to practise

Aggravating factors:

• Serious and repeated nature of offending (18 child sex offences over 12 years)
• Included maintaining an unlawful sexual relationship with a child for 12 years
• One conviction declared a serious violent offence
• Sentenced to 11 years' imprisonment
• Committed while a sitting magistrate

Mitigating factors:

• Respondent consented to the orders sought