Lawyer is forced to resign for helping to catch killer

LAWYER Stephen Chittenden was key to solving the murder of a teenage girl stabbed to death by a canal as she walked home.

But the 66-year-old says he has been forced out of his profession for helping to nail the killer and for preventing a miscarriage of justice.

He handed over crucial information which led to the conviction of Michael Brooks for killing Lynn Siddons, in Barrow-onTrent, Derbyshire, in 1978.

But in doing so Mr Chittenden breached client confidentiality, prompting an inquiry by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) – which accused him of ‘utterly unacceptable’ conduct.

He has agreed to remove his name from the official roll of solicitors to avoid being struck off – even though no one has

‘I’m proud of what I did’

made a complaint about what he did many years ago.

Miss Siddons, 16, was killed on April 3, 1978. Her strangled body, which had 43 stab wounds, was found six days later in bushes by the Trent and Mersey Canal in Derby.

Fifteen-year-old Roy Brooks was charged with her murder but evidence emerged that his stepfather Michael was involved and the teenager was acquitted.

Mr Chittenden, who represented Roy Brooks, later gave confidential papers to Miss Siddons’s family and Michael Brooks was eventually convicted of the girl’s murder.

Last year, Mr Chittenden admitted what he had done in an interview with a local newspaper, saying: ‘It could have lost me my career, but I’m proud of what I did.’

After an SRA enquiry he was officially rebuked and ordered to pay £650 costs.