Barrister Duncan Maxwell-Stewart “sexually assaulted two female colleagues” Daily Mail

J Roberts made this Freedom of Information request to General Council of the Bar
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The request was partially successful.

Dear General Council of the Bar,

From the Daily Mail:

“A barrister has been suspended for sexually assaulting two fellow female legal workers on a drink-fuelled night out.

Duncan Maxwell-Stewart was so intoxicated he began dancing on the tables of a bar before sexually assaulting the two women, a disciplinary hearing was told.

The lawyer invited one of the women onto the dance floor before lifting her skirt up and 'revealing her underwear'.

He later groped the bottom of a junior solicitor who was also on the night out, who he had met just three times before."

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

I can't find anything for 'Duncan Maxwell-Stewart' when I search your site:

https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/for...

1. Please provide a copy of the decision.

The GMC has a document entitled 'Sharing information with the police':

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/6...

2. Please provide any similar document you have that may assist disciplinary tribunals to decide whether the police should be contacted regarding the conduct of delinquent barristers.

Yours faithfully,

J Roberts

privacy, General Council of the Bar

2 Attachments

Dear J Roberts

 

In response to your request, please note that the General Council of the
Bar (including the Bar Standards Board) is not subject to the Freedom of
Information Act as we are not a public authority as outlined in Schedule 1
of the Act; however, we endeavour to respond to such requests with within
the spirit of the Act, in the interests of transparency.

 

The entry for Duncan Maxwell-Stewart on the Barristers’ Register is
[1]here. Details of the disciplinary decision will be added to his entry
and to the list of past disciplinary findings within seven days of the
finding, which was made on 10 September, in accordance with the Bar
Standards Board’s publishing policy.

 

You will also find the Bar Standards Board’s [2]press release about the
decision on the website. That includes a link to the full decision on the
Bar Tribunals & Adjudication Service’s (BTAS’s) website. However, if you
go to this link
[3]https://www.tbtas.org.uk/hearings/findin...
you can download a copy of the published finding and/or the report of the
finding and sanction. Reports are not published on the Bar Standards Board
(BSB) website because they are not the BSB’s reports, but the Tribunal’s
reports.

 

You also asked for any documents similar to the GMC’s ‘Sharing information
with the police’ that may assist disciplinary tribunals to decide whether
the police should be contacted regarding barristers’ conduct. The Tribunal
is a separate organisation, so you would have to seek this from the
Tribunal. Its guidance documents are available on its website at
[4]https://www.tbtas.org.uk/policies-guidan....

 

That concludes our response, and I hope you find it useful. We do not have
an internal review procedure for FIOA requests and because we are not
subject to the FIOA there is no right to complain to the Information
Commissioner’s Office.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Hilary Pook

Data Protection Officer

The Bar Council

289-293 High Holborn

London WC1V 7HZ

Direct Line: 020 7611 1398

Switchboard: 020 7242 0082

Web: [5]www.barcouncil.org.uk

Web: [6]www.barstandardsboard.org.uk

 

 

            

 

From: J Roberts <[FOI #791095 email]>
Sent: 14 September 2021 00:05
To: privacy <[email address]>
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Barrister Duncan Maxwell-Stewart
“sexually assaulted two female colleagues” Daily Mail

 

***EXTERNAL*** This email originated from outside of the organisation. Do
not click links or open attachments unless you recognise the sender and
know the content is safe.

 

Dear General Council of the Bar,

From the Daily Mail:

“A barrister has been suspended for sexually assaulting two fellow female
legal workers on a drink-fuelled night out.

Duncan Maxwell-Stewart was so intoxicated he began dancing on the tables
of a bar before sexually assaulting the two women, a disciplinary hearing
was told.

The lawyer invited one of the women onto the dance floor before lifting
her skirt up and 'revealing her underwear'.

He later groped the bottom of a junior solicitor who was also on the night
out, who he had met just three times before."

[7]https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

I can't find anything for 'Duncan Maxwell-Stewart' when I search your
site:

[8]https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/for...

1. Please provide a copy of the decision.

The GMC has a document entitled 'Sharing information with the police':

[9]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/6...

2. Please provide any similar document you have that may assist
disciplinary tribunals to decide whether the police should be contacted
regarding the conduct of delinquent barristers.

Yours faithfully,

J Roberts

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J Roberts left an annotation ()

Report of Finding and Sanction

Case reference: PC2020/1230/D3

Mr Duncan Maxwell-Stewart

https://www.tbtas.org.uk/wp-content/uplo...

'22. Person A suggested that they got a drink. It may have been unfortunate to invite Mr Maxwell-Stewart to consume more alcohol but as a device to stop him from dancing on the tables, we can understand doing so. Mr Maxwell-Stewart suggested that they go upstairs to get the drink. In fact, there was no Bar upstairs and by going up it had the effect of isolating Person A from her friend.'

J Roberts left an annotation ()

'Sanctions Guidance
Version 6
Consultation Draft
September 2021'

'4.15. Further, in some cases, a respondent may have acted in a way which meets the definition of a criminal offence, without having been convicted of any offence. Sometimes this may be because the person targeted by the behaviour chose not to report it to the police. This is particularly likely to be relevant in sexual misconduct, discrimination, and harassment cases. The fact that the person who was targeted did not report the behaviour to the police should not in itself be seen as reducing the seriousness of the behaviour, as there are many reasons why they may have chosen not to report it.'

https://www.tbtas.org.uk/wp-content/uplo...

I can't see anything about BTAS reporting matters which meet the definition of a criminal offence to the police.