PERVERT LAWYER STRUCK OFF
Seedy solicitor ‘titillated’ by paedophile case is struck off
A LAWYER who admitted finding evidence from a young girl in a child sex abuse case “titillating” has been struck off.
Kevin Macpherson, 45, also made a young female trainee feel like a “sex toy” after discussing her with another woman in a string of sexually charged emails.
During routine IT work, a colleague at a law firm in Stornoway on the island of Lewis found Macpherson had been exchanging emails for more than two years with a woman, known only as Ms D, where they had discussed sex and a trainee in explicit detail.
Ms D reported him to a legal watchdog after he sent her twisted messages relating to evidence in a child sex abuse case he was working on in June 2012.
Mac p h e r s o n , of Stornoway, told Ms D in an email, “You would have loved what I was reading this morning” before adding, “A statement of a little girl talking about what she saw in a gym”.
He was referred to prosecutors, who ruled no criminal action should be taken against him. But he left a £96,000-a-year role with the firm and set up his own business at his home.
A Scottish Solicitors’ Discipline Tribunal (SSDT) panel heard Macpherson admit he found the statement from the girl “titillating” and “sexually gratifying”. He also admitted misconduct towards a trainee.
His lawyer, David Burnside, said being struck off would be a “significant” blow to Macpherson as he would have to give up his business and relocate.
The SSDT found him guilty of professional misconduct. In a written ruling, it said: “Strike-off was the only appropriate sanction.”
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