Police: Offences dated back to when barrister was an officer in the 1980s
A barrister has been disbarred for raping a woman, when she was a teenager under 16 and when she was older, while he was a policeman in the 1980s.
A Bar disciplinary tribunal said James Boyle, who was sentenced to 16 years in prison, had been convicted of “horrendous offences” in what it described as a “gross breach of trust”.
The tribunal found that Mr Boyle, called to the Bar in 1999, failed to report to the Bar Standards Board (BSB) that he had been charged with the offences in July 2019 and that in April 2023 he had been convicted at Cambridge Crown Court of one counts of rape and one of indecent assault of a girl under the age of 16 and one count of rape of a woman aged between 16 and 19. All concerned the same person.
The BSB said the offences took place between 1986 and 1988. It was reported, by the BBC and elsewhere, that at that time Mr Boyle was a police officer working for Cambridgeshire Police.
The Bar disciplinary tribunal said Mr Boyle, who maintains his innocence, had referred to the fact that the allegations preceded his call to the Bar in 1999.
Following the dismissal of his appeal against conviction by the Court of Appeal, Mr Boyle had told the tribunal in writing that he was preparing to apply to the Criminal Case Review Commission.
The tribunal said “they, it needs hardly be said by us, are horrendous offences of some of the most serious kinds”.
Mr Boyle, who appeared via video link from Littlehey Prison in Cambridgeshire, said he did not inform the BSB when he was charged in July 2019 because he was “under the misapprehension that you did not need to if the BSB was already aware of the matter”.
It was not until shortly before the Crown Court trial, which was heavily delayed by the pandemic, that Mr Boyle informed the BSB of the charges and then did not report the fact of the convictions under October 2024.
The tribunal said there was no exception from the rule requiring barristers to report charges and convictions to the BSB “on the basis that one believes the BSB are already aware of the information”.
Mr Boyle admitted the allegations against him. The tribunal said the type of criminal offences, the length of the sentence and the fact Mr Boyle was now on the sexual offences register were all aggravating factors.
His co-operation with the BSB and admission of its charges were mitigating circumstances, which were “not that weighty” but were “nonetheless there”, and his health was a further mitigating factor.
Mr Boyle was disbarred. There was no order for costs.