Bolton Crown Court: Suspended prison sentence
A solicitor has been struck off after being convicted of distributing an indecent image of a child and possessing extreme pornography.
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) heard that Sohail Bashir was convicted at Bolton Crown Court after police were alerted by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in the USA.
It told the National Crime Agency in 2018 about a Facebook account in the name of Mr Bashir had accessed a pornographic video involving a young child.
Sentencing the solicitor in July 2024, His Honour Judge Clarke said Mr Bashir was “responsible for distribution to three other people” of an image showing “a very young girl disrobing herself”.
In addition, he was found to be “in possession of an extreme image of a woman having intercourse with a dog, which was an example of 70 such images”.
The solicitor, 62 this year, qualified in 2008. He was a consultant at London firm Allied Law Chambers Solicitors until March 2024.
According to a statement of agreed facts and outcome, approved by the SDT, Greater Manchester Police began an investigation and arrested the solicitor in August 2020. His mobile phone was seized, on which several indecent images and videos were found.
Mr Bashir was interviewed, but denied the offences. He was charged in March 2024 with distribution of an indecent photograph of a child and “possessing extreme pornographic images portraying an act of intercourse with a dead or alive animal”.
Allied Law Chambers appointed an external consultant specialising in regulatory compliance to report this to the SRA, which happened in May 2024.
Mr Bashir pleaded guilty at Manchester Magistrates’ Court later that month, where he was convicted and committed for sentence at Bolton Crown Court.
HHJ Clarke sentenced him to six months in prison, suspended for two years. Mr Bashir was required to register with the police for seven years, attend rehabilitation activities for a maximum of 30 days and carry out 180 hours of unpaid work.
He was also made subject to a sexual harm prevention order for seven years, preventing him from having contact with a child under 16 via electronic means or possessing any device capable of storing digital images without the consent of the police.
HHJ Clarke told Mr Bashir that he had “no doubt that by the commission of these offences you will lose your professional status”.
The distribution of such images “cause incalculable harm” to the subjects, he added.
The SRA said the solicitor admitted that, through his criminal convictions, he had failed to act with integrity or uphold public trust and confidence in the profession. He offered no mitigation.
The SDT said that Mr Bashir’s misconduct “could only be viewed as extremely serious and no sanction less than a strike-off would be sufficient to protect the public and the reputation of the profession”.
He was also ordered to pay costs of £2,680.
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