Southwark Crown Court: Solicitor convicted
A former City solicitor has been struck off after being convicted at Southwark Crown Court on two separate occasions and jailed for child sex offences.
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) said one of the reasons a statement of agreed facts and outcome between Stuart Cottis and the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) was submitted late was because he was “unrepresented and incarcerated, making communication protracted and challenging for the parties”.
Mr Cottis, admitted in 2002, worked as an associate for Ashurst from January 2012 to January 2021, and as a senior associate at Eversheds Sutherland from May 2022 until June 2023.
The SRA was informed by both firms in June 2023 that Mr Cottis had been remanded in custody in relation to child sex offences.
Following his arrest, a forensic examination of his devices revealed evidence of his communication with three boys.
Her Honour Judge Hales KC commented at the trial: “Your communication with all three boys was highly sexualised from the outset and undoubtedly for the purpose of your sexual gratification.
“Their age (or apparent age) was no deterrent, indeed if anything it appears to have added to their attraction for you. You referred to them being at school and being in school uniform.
“You made repeated requests for them to meet you to engage in sexual activity. You solicited photographs from them and supplied photographs of yourself.”
HHJ Hales said that in respect of one of the boys, who said he only did ‘cash meets’, Mr Cottis “indicated a willingness to pay and did pay to receive at least one sexual image”.
Mr Cottis pleaded guilty in November 2023 to attempted sexual communication with a child, sexual communication with a child and arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sex offence.
He was sentenced to three years, which HHJ Hales said would have been four and a half years had he not pleaded guilty.
Mr Cottis was on trial again at Southwark Crown Court in August 2024, where he pleaded guilty to two more offences and was jailed for a further 11 months.
One conviction was for intentionally touching a child between nine and 10 years old, having become “sexually aroused” when the child was “sitting on his lap”. The offence took place between January 2019 and January 2021.
Mr Cottis a pleaded guilty to an earlier offence, which took place in 2017, when he sexually communicated with a child, including through “phone images”.
The SRA said HHJ Hales referred to mitigation in her judgment, which stated that Mr Cottis had “battled for many years with his mental health, suffering from depression” that at times had rendered him suicidal.
Lockdown saw a “marked deterioration” in his mental health, when he was “out of work, isolated and lonely, and drinking too much”. It was during that period that the solicitor “sought and found distraction on social media and the sexual contact with young boys commenced”.
The SDT said: “Within the sphere of regulatory and disciplinary conduct there could be no mitigation to minimise the harm.
“The seriousness of the misconduct was self-evident and no sanction less than a strike off would be sufficient to protect the public and the reputation of the profession.”
Mr Cottis was struck off and ordered to pay costs of £3,870.
