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Called to the bar


A barrister has been jailed after travelling across the country with the intention of sexually abusing teenage girls.

Guy Sims, 53, a civil barrister, used a teenage app MyLOL and a messaging app Kik to chat online to two people who he believed were 13-year-old school girls. However, they were fake accounts set up by officers of the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit (SEROCU).

Sims pretended to be an 18-year-old, calling himself 'markbatx' and 'markviva', and arranged to meet one of the 'girls' in September 2017. He travelled from Cambridge to Portsmouth with the "intention of engaging in sexual activity" with the girl, said SEROCU.

Police arrested the barrister when he arrived, and discovered that he had condoms and cider in his car, as well as camouflage leaf netting. Sims told the officers that he had found the booze on the street, and had the netting for his daughter's Woodcraft Folk youth club, and not because he wanted to take the girl to the woods. He had also arranged to meet another of the teenage girls that day, according to a report in the Oxford Mail of his trial.

Sims was released under investigation, but had a sexual conversation online with another person who he believed to be a 13-year-old girl, and arranged a meeting in Oxford. Sims claimed that his reason for doing this was to see if the police were on the internet hunting potential paedophiles.

Sims was found guilty of three counts of arranging or facilitating commission of a child sex offence by a unanimous jury at the Oxford Crown Court, and sentenced to three and a half years in jail. 

“This is the conclusion of a case in which Sims engaged in conversation of a sexual nature and arranged to meet up with those who he believed to be three teenage girls with the intention of carrying out child sexual abuse," said Detective Chief Inspector Philip Attwood of SEROCU.

“Sims worked as a civil barrister and should have recognised the consequences of this offending. He demonstrated that he was prepared to go to great lengths and travel across the country to Portsmouth, to Guildford and to Oxford to engage in depraved sexual activity with children."

“He repeatedly engaged with the profiles of those he believed to be teenage girls online, and the threat he posed would have continued had it not been for the continued and dedicated efforts of those working for SEROCU.”

A spokesman for the Bar Standards Board told RollOnFriday that Sims had been "suspended with immediate effect by the BSB following his conviction" and that "the suspension would remain in place until a full Disciplinary Tribunal can be arranged and heard." The spokesman added: "we cannot comment in advance about the possible outcomes of the independent tribunal.”

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Comments

Sumoking 15 October 21 08:23

A spokesman for the Bar Standards Board told RollOnFriday that Sims had been "suspended with immediate effect by the BSB following his conviction" and that "the suspension would remain in place until a full Disciplinary Tribunal can be arranged and heard." 

Just had a look at the BSB disciplinary guidelines (Rule S59 it seems) for creepy wig jockies who wear out their waifu pillows, seems he could be looking at a truly brutal £50 fine and being forbidden to wear his lucky ribbon for 6 whole weeks 

 

Anonymous 15 October 21 08:49

Why do the BSB need to conduct an independant investigation? Surely the conviction is all the evidence they need?

Anonymous 15 October 21 09:21

@8.49 - it doesn't sound as if they are conducting an independent investigation, more that they're convening a tribunal to determine the disciplinary measures to take.

Anonymous 15 October 21 09:56

I have a bad feeling this one will also get away with being barred. It takes junior lawyers so little to be barred from the profession. 

Lord Lester 15 October 21 10:20

I sincerely hope that the BSB does not clear him of all wrongdoing.

 

The camouflage netting is what pushed it over the line, even for me...

Anonymous 15 October 21 10:43

Unlike the SRA Sumoking, who are brutal in their punishments towards juniors and male solicitors.

Anonymous 15 October 21 11:35

@9.56 - unlikely. He is a barrister. Its junior and male solicitors who are easily barred from the profession.

Anonymous 15 October 21 18:21

@10.20 - unlikely that the BSB will completely clear him of all wrongdoing, as they did with you.

History will judge you as a victim.

Anon 16 October 21 17:00

Except the BSB did not clear Lord Lester. They only have him clearance to practise. The findings made by the House of Lords’ enquiry - that he harassed Jasvinder Sanghera and offered to secure her a peerage in exchange for sex - stand.

The only victim is Ms Sanghera.

 

 

Lord Lester 17 October 21 08:46

I'm a complicated man, and nobody understands me but my woman.

 

 

And the BSB.

 

And 18:21.

Anonymous 17 October 21 10:13

No 16th 17.00, the BSB did clear him. This was after the House of Lords voted that he had been the victim of an unfair process. He retired from the Lords on the grounds of ill health shortly afterwards following the ordeal he went through (he was in his 80s at the time).

So he was a victim.

Anonymous 19 October 21 12:27

[email protected] - except that the BSB did clear him of any wrongdoing. And the House of Lirds voted that he was the victim of an unfair process. Like it or not that's what happened.

And that is why he's a victim.

Anonymous 19 October 21 13:44

@8.46 - nobody understands you but your woman, the BSB, 18:21, and everyone else who thinks you're a victim.

Anon 20 October 21 10:43

Anonymous 17 October 21 10:13; Anonymous 19 October 21 12:27; Anonymous 19 October 21 13:44: 

The BSB did not clear Lord Lester. They only gave him clearance to practise. The findings made by the House of Lords’ enquiry - that he harassed Jasvinder Sanghera and offered to secure her a peerage in exchange for sex - stand.

The House of Lords overturned the earlier vote that the process was unfair and found that the process was fair. So the process was fair.

Like it or not, that is what happened.

The only victim is Ms Sanghera.

Anonymous 21 October 21 23:03

Yes, he was completely cleared by the BSB and the HoL voted him to be the victim of an unfair process.

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