Upskirting lawyer had collection of pictures of junior colleague

A PARTNER at a top law firm has been struck off after he secretly took dozens of videos and photographs of a female trainee from under a desk.

Richard Smith, 59, took covert recordings and images of the junior staff member without her consent after becoming “besotted” with her.

Mr Smith, a department head at a highly ranked firm, also sent her thousands of messages, asked her out to dinner and bombarded her with unwanted gifts. After two years of his campaign, Mr Smith was caught on a train when a passenger spotted him “upskirting” the trainee solicitor while sitting opposite her in first class.

Photographs found on his phone after the late-night incident in November 2019 showed he took images of her crossed legs and another of her face. Now, the senior solicitor has been struck off at a tribunal and been ordered to pay £59,550 in legal fees.

The trainee solicitor, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the tribunal she felt “violated” and “sick” at the thought of his collection of photographs and videos.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal heard Mr Smith’s behaviour occurred us all that we might be in for the long haul. A family sitting at a table near me produced a Monopoly set from somewhere. Monopoly is not a game that tends to be over quickly. Had they had a premonition?

At least the Monopoly family had seats. Dozens weren’t so lucky: this was one of the last trains out of London, because of yet another train strike, and vestibules were packed with people standing for what they thought would be a 22-minute inconvenience before the train arrived at Reading and disgorged commuters. Pity help the families with children told to make their way to the front of the train where there were some seats in first class, and even some water.

Passengers on nearby trains had it even worse. Our train had lighting and heat, but Elizabeth Line Tube trains – which run on the same lines – lost power altogether, leaving passengers cold and dark. They included Rachel Riley, the co-presenter, and the singer James Blunt.

Blunt posted on X, formerly Twitter: “Been stuck somewhere outside Paddington for close to 4 hours now. Out of peanuts and wine. Can someone please contact Dominos UK. This is an emergency.”

Passengers on other trains were evacuated to a nearby depot on foot, others decided to evacuate themselves by forcing open the doors and walking to Paddington, around two miles from where we were all stuck.

On the 18.30, it turned out Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines was among the passengers caught up in the nightmare of his firm’s making.

Around two hours in, he took over announcement duties, telling us we were going back to Paddington, then we were going to go to Ealing Broadway to disembark, then we were going to be evacuated one carriage at a time onto the rails, then finally settling on Paddington again.

“Your bonus is cancelled!” shouted one passenger (for the record, Mr Haines’s salary rose from £554,000 to £590,000 last year).

At Paddington, we were told, another train would be laid on, “subject to the availability of train crew”. The passengers were way ahead of him. “There’s a strike on!” people shouted in unison. Few were likely to be earning the £100,000 salaries ‘Been stuck for close to four hours now. Out of peanuts and wine. Can someone contact Dominos?’ between December 2017 and November 2019, while he was a partner and head of real estate at the undisclosed law firm.

He had been warned twice to stop recording the trainee after colleagues became suspicious of him holding his phone and pointing it at her.

The “considerably older” lawyer sent the trainee 1,241 WhatsApp messages between January and November in 2019, and only received one reply from enjoyed by some train drivers who have walked out over pay.

Moments before we arrived at Paddington – around four hours after we had left it – there was an announcement: taxis had been arranged to take us all home! You don’t need to have been there to imagine the scenes when nearly a thousand people turned up all at once at the cab rank.

With little to no help from GWR staff, passengers tried to find others going to the same destination. Most of us joined a queue that presumably had her. After December 2018, when he was told for the second time to stop recording her, he sent her 2,656 Skype messages. Phone records show he had searched her name online 63 times.

He had “in excess” of 90 pictures of the trainee, including images taken from under a desk with her legs crossed.

After the incident on the train, the British Transport Police detained Mr Smith and an investigation was an end, while others, like black market spivs, tried to grab taxis before they entered the station to do side-deals.

Some taxis left with just one or two people in them, conjuring a mental image of half-empty lifeboats casting off from the Titanic. The Blitz spirit had given way to survival of the fittest.

It was past midnight by the time I boarded a black cab, meaning I had queued for around 90 minutes. I shared with four Austrians – staying in Reading – for whom a day trip to London had been their first experience launched. At the tribunal, Mr Smith admitted all the offences, saying he “found Person A to be attractive and that was the reason for his taking photographs and videos of her”. Mr Smith described himself as being in love with and besotted by her, and romantically attracted to her, it was heard.

Paul Lewis, the tribunal chairman, ruled that Mr Smith – a lawyer of 34 years – must be struck off. of British railways. From the looks on their faces, I doubt they will be back.

By the time we got to Reading the taxi meter had clocked up £165, which we will have to try to claim back from GWR. After a 40-minute queue at Reading station for yet another taxi to take me from there to the village where I live, I got through my front door at 2am. Chilled to the bone and supperless, I climbed into bed knowing that for some poor souls out there on the M4, home was a destination still hours in the future.