A top QC sent texts about the head of Scotland’s largest rape charity saying he would “shag” her “just to have something over her”.
In a series of salacious messages, Brian McConnachie QC also sent a sexually explicit photograph of himself from the toilets of a high court building minutes after defending a rape accused.
In WhatsApp messages to a woman, he also made claims of having sex in various legal buildings including courtrooms and the Crown Office and at an official party for Scotland’s top law officer, the Lord Advocate.
In another text he referred to a client as a “lying c***” and was found to have breached his duty of confidence.
McConnachie, a former high court prosecutor, is one of Scotland’s top legal aid earners and has acted in some of the country’s most high-profile cases.
The woman shared the messages as evidence for a formal complaint she lodged with legal watchdogs regarding McConnachie’s professional conduct.
A disciplinary committee from the Faculty of Advocates has issued a judgment on the complaints but has upheld only a fraction of the shocking allegations as “unsatisfactory professional conduct”.
On October 27, 2020, McConnachie sent a text claiming another QC had said he wanted to have sex with the chief executive of Rape Crisis Scotland, Sandy Brindley.
The committee split this complaint into two parts and referred to the other QC – “a high-profile criminal advocate” – as Mr A. Firstly, McConnachie wrote Mr A had “once said to me he’d shag Sandy Brindley”.
Secondly, he added: “I might shag her, just to have something over her, but I wouldn’t enjoy it.”
The Faculty of Advocates states QCs are obliged to ensure their personal as well as their professional “honour, honesty and integrity are beyond doubt”.
Yet the committee found McConnachie had been guilty of “unsatisfactory professional conduct” only in relation to the first part of the message and because it showed “disloyalty” to his fellow advocate by sharing his comments.
The committee said if Mr A had not made the remarks McConnachie should not be linking him “with distasteful and base comments” which could prove embarrassing.
The committee’s concern was that if a third party had seen the messages they could have jeopardised the reputation of Mr A and the Faculty.
The committee didn’t regard the behaviour as “serious and reprehensible” enough to meet the bar of the more serious “professional misconduct”.
But it said while the second part of the message was “distasteful”, it “concerned only McConnachie’s” feelings and wishes about “hypothetical sexual activity that he might engage in” with the head of Rape Crisis Scotland.
It dismissed this part of the complaint, saying it didn’t involve another QC, was a “private” communication and therefore didn’t directly concern the Faculty of Advocates.
Last night, a spokesperson for Rape Crisis Scotland branded McConnachie’s derogatory sexual references to Brindley as “unacceptable” and called for the faculty to urgently address misogyny in its ranks.
The spokesperson said: “We are shocked and extremely disappointed to see such sexist and misogynistic behaviour directed towards our chief executive.
“For senior members of the faculty to discuss our staff in such a sexist and demeaning way is completely unacceptable.
“If senior QCs are willing to behave in this way towards someone in Rape Crisis, how are they behaving towards young women entering the profession or women they are cross-examining in sexual offence cases?
“We are calling on the faculty and other legal professional bodies in Scotland to commit to taking urgent action to address the misogynistic attitudes which clearly exist within the profession.”
On the same date of those messages, McConnachie sent a sexually explicit photograph to a woman, declaring he was in an aroused state in the toilets of Livingston’s High Court.
McConnachie, who had just finished defending a rape accused, didn’t deny the picture was taken in the court toilets but insisted it was a private matter and the committee had no authority to investigate it as he wasn’t engaged with a client when it was sent.
The committee unanimously agreed and dismissed the complaint as the picture was sent a minute after the court day usually ended at 4pm and it couldn’t be proven he was still engaged by a client.
The complaints were first sent to the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission (SLCC) – an independent body which handles disputes between the public and lawyers – .
It found there were grounds to refer six conduct complaints to the Faculty of Advocates, which regulates QCs.
The faculty also considered texts where McConnachie had claimed to have engaged in sexual activity with seven different colleagues, from a trainee to fellow advocates, in various Crown locations – including court buildings.
But the disciplinary committee accepted McConnachie’s defence that “the claims were fantasy and that the sexual acts described did not actually happen”. It dismissed that element of the complaint.
However, the committee did find McConnachie had been guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct when he called an unnamed client a “lying c***”, as this was insulting conduct beneath the standard expected of “reputable advocates”.
The Daily Record has contacted McConnachie for a comment on this story.
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