An experienced criminal barrister who showed his client photos that he had taken of scantily clad women has been banned from practising for two years.
Alan Wheetman, who was called to the bar in 1995, was found to have made inappropriate comments to a female client in a conversation about his side-business in photography work, the Bar Standards Board (BSB) said.
At a magistrates’ court in August 2022, Mr Wheetman showed the female client his own personal photography website, which included semi-nude images of women. He offered to take pictures of her, with the suggestion she would pose naked too.
An independent tribunal on Tuesday ruled the comments were inappropriate and of a sexual nature. It said Mr Wheetman had acted in a way that was likely to diminish trust and confidence in the barrister’s profession.
The tribunal suspended Mr Wheetman from practising as a barrister for 24 months over the professional misconduct charges. He now has an opportunity to appeal the tribunal’s decision.
A spokesman for the BSB said: “Inappropriate conduct of a sexualised nature is not something that the public should expect from members of the Bar and the decision to prevent Mr Wheetman from practising reflects the seriousness of his conduct.”
On his personal photography website, Mr Wheetman responded to the BSB’s decision in offering a warning to all photographers who work in regulated professions about the risks of “showing any images from your portfolio to anybody in the workplace.”
Mr Wheetman said: “What may be viewed by some as an innocent discussion about your hobby or pastime, can so readily be interpreted by others as ‘inappropriate comments and behaviour of a sexual nature’.”
The barrister’s website contains a portfolio of dozens of photographs of women in various states of undress. It says: “Photography is my escape into an artistic world where I meet like-minded people, and work with creative, talented models — whatever their experience.”
Mr Wheetman, who was called to the bar at Middle Temple, has previously worked on an array of high profile cases.
In a case at the Old Bailey, the barrister, who worked out of East Anglian Chambers in Chelmsford, Essex, successfully defended a lorry driver, charged with careless driving, who ran over and killed 26-year-old cyclist Janina Gehlau in 2014, while driving in central London.
Telegraph/UK