Stephen Donald Gillings Coleclough

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

The Respondent, a solicitor admitted in 1986, was convicted on 25 February 2016 at Northampton Crown Court of eight offences including possession of extreme pornographic images, making indecent photographs of a child (6 counts) and distributing an indecent photograph of a child. He was sentenced to 14 months' imprisonment suspended for 24 months plus a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and other requirements. On the basis of an agreed outcome, the Tribunal found breaches of Principles 1, 2 and 6 proved (admitted) and ordered that he be struck off the Roll and pay costs of £1,488.76. The Tribunal also ordered that a sensitive letter remain confidential. No express finding of dishonesty was made.

Duties found breached:

• Integrity
• Uphold public trust in the profession
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank

Aggravating factors:

• Involved the commission of serious criminal offences
• Breaches took place over 14 months and involved indecent photographs of vulnerable people (children)
• Misconduct the Respondent knew or ought reasonably to have known was in material breach of obligations to protect the public and the reputation of the profession
• High culpability and harm to society and to the reputation of the profession

Mitigating factors:

• Pleaded guilty voluntarily in criminal proceedings
• Informed the Applicant of both his charge and conviction
• Made admissions at an early stage of the disciplinary proceedings
• Did not seek to excuse his conduct