Solicitor handed suspended sentence over indecent images


Southwark Crown Court: Thousands of videos and images involved

A solicitor who downloaded thousands of indecent images of children and shared some of the material online has been handed a suspended prison sentence.

Mohamed Ismail, 35, was caught with more than 15,000 obscene videos and stills.

Mr Ismail, who studied in Singapore, admitted having 1,076 videos and 2,173 images of the most serious category A.

He also admitted having 221 videos and 2,476 still images, categorised as B, as well as distributing indecent videos and images of children online.

Mr Ismail, who lives in Chelsea, admitted three counts of downloading indecent images of children and three of distributing indecent images of children.

He was handed a 16-month sentence, suspended for 18 months and ordered to pay £100 costs.

He was working for Coutts at the time of his arrest – but no longer is – and had also worked for US firms K&L Gates, Latham & Watkins and Goodwin Proctor.

Mr Ismail was also given a sexual harm prevention order prohibiting him from using internet browsers or messaging apps which do not save their history.

He will be required to submit any electronic devices for inspection by the police upon request as well.

His Honour Judge Grieve QC at Southwark Crown Court said: “It imposes considerable restrictions on his use of the internet, software programmes, and he must make his devices available to the police.

“I’m satisfied that the making of the order is necessary for the protection of the public from sexual harm, in particular children, going as close as one can to preventing him from accessing this type of material in the future.

“It is an offence to breach the terms of the order, which carries a sentence of up to five years.”




Leave a Comment

By clicking Submit you consent to Legal Futures storing your personal data and confirm you have read our Privacy Policy and section 5 of our Terms & Conditions which deals with user-generated content. All comments will be moderated before posting.

Required fields are marked *
Email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Blog


Is competition in the legal sector stifling innovation?

As the legal sector’s competitive landscape continues to evolve, Nobel laureates remind us that innovation is not inevitable,and that competition may not always be an incentive to innovate.


What high-performing consumer claims firms get right

Recurring concerns about parts of the volume claims sector show that the gap between well-run firms and those struggling to manage volume effectively is widening.


The SRA’s 2025 AML report: What law firms need to know

The SRA has released its 2024-25 anti-money laundering report and the scale of supervision is striking – it carried out 935 proactive engagements in the year to 5 April 2025.


Loading animation