Michael Shrimpton’s professional fate in the hands of bar regulator as prison term comes in wake of child pornography conviction
The barrister convicted of an Olympic Games bomb hoax has been sentenced to 12 months in jail, it was reported this afternoon, as the profession’s regulator considers his future.
Michael Shrimpton — formerly of London’s Tanfield Chambers and an immigration judge — was sentenced today by judge Alistair McCreath at Southwark Crown Court in the capital.
He was found guilty at the end of last November of making a bomb hoax at the 2012 London games, in which he maintained that crypto-Nazis wanted to blow up the Queen.
At the time, it was revealed that Shrimpton, 57, had been convicted earlier in the year at Aylesbury Crown Court of creating indecent computer images of children. He was sentenced by to a three-year supervision order and a five–year Sexual Offences Prevention Order.
At that trial, Shrimpton claimed that secret service agents planted the images on his computer memory stick in a plot to discredit him.
The Bar Standards Board maintains it suspended Shrimpton from practice following the child pornography conviction.
Today, its director of professional conduct, Sara Jagger, told Legal Cheek:
“Following Mr Shrimpton’s conviction in November last year, we immediately acted to suspend him from practising as a barrister. This suspension is still in effect.
“While we do not usually comment on individual cases, following his sentencing today and as this information is already public, we can confirm that we are investigating Mr Shrimpton in accordance with our enforcement processes.”