Barrister Henry Hendron loses appeal against drug sentence

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By Rhys Duncan on

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Jailed last year after trying to buy drugs from clients

Henry Hendron

A barrister who was handed a 14-month prison term after trying to buy drugs from his clients has failed in an appeal against his sentence.

Henry Hendron was sentenced last year after admitting to three counts of intentionally encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence and one count of possessing a class A drug.

“The facts of this case are unique. It is to be hoped that remains the case,” the Court of Appeal began when considering Hendron’s appeal.

The court noted “two features of this case which are both unusual and very serious.” It stated that, at the time of the acts, Hendron was a practicing barrister with previous drug-related crimes, albeit he had not been disbarred for that conduct, and that “the individuals from whom he was encouraging to supply drugs to him” were prisoners on remand being represented by Hendron.

The barrister was arrested outside Belmarsh prison in May 2022 whilst visiting one of his clients. Messages on his phone showed that he had asked to buy methamphetamine, a Class A drug, and GBL, then Class C, although since upgraded to Class B.

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Hendron’s initial contention that his prosecution was impacted by his role as a barrister was quickly dismissed by the court. “The decision to prosecute for a particular crime is not a matter for the court. That is the province of the Crown Prosecution Service and, subject to an application in respect of abuse of process on proper grounds, which was not advanced in this case and could not be, we reject this submission without hesitation for one moment.

“We can quite see why the evidential test was met and why the public interest test was also met in this case.”

A second submission about the length of the sentence was deemed a “much more sensible argument,” but it also did not win favour with the court.

“We do not consider a sentence of 18 months’ imprisonment to be in any way outside the range open to the judge in this case before consideration of the reduction in sentence because of the guilty plea,” it said. This 18 months was reduced by 20%, and rounded down to 14, because of the timing of Hendron’s confession.

“It seems to us that that was the very least sentence which could be imposed in this case following a trial, having regard to all the very serious aggravating factors which we have identified, as did the judge below,” the court noted. “It is hard to conceive of a more serious situation in a crime of this kind for a lawyer to seek to procure illegal drugs for himself from a criminal whom he is representing.”

The court was nonetheless cautious not to slip into the field of professional regulation, adding that:

“We emphasise, this has nothing to do with professional regulation or discipline. The disbarment of the appellant is for the professional disciplinary body of the Bar, as it was before in 2016. We expressly make no observation about what should or should not be done to maintain the professional integrity of the profession and what professional sanction should be imposed for bringing the profession into disrepute. This court is solely concerned with the sentence imposed for the criminality of the appellant; nothing more and nothing less.”

Back in 2017 Hendron was suspended from practicing as a barrister for three years after being convicted of possessing ‘chemsex’ substances mephedrone and gamma-butyrolactone. His conviction also earned him a community order with 18 months supervision and 140 hours unpaid work.

14 Comments

Barry Stir

Wow.

I’m not sure what you would have to do to be disbarred for life.

If he was a solicitor he would have been struck off for failing to use a clean handkerchief while sneezing!

Anonymous

I’ve worked at somewhere between 12-20 law firms and know huge amounts of lawyers and Doctors, IFA’s, accountants and brokers etc etc who regularly take drugs and lie about it. I’ve always been honest about my past drug use in my teens and 20’s with the NHS to my detriment. Just go on social media you don’t need the dark web these days and for God’s sake don’t buy from your clients lol.

Keen Observer

Privilege and entitlement.

Archibald O'Pomposity

He has brought the profession into disrepute. He has a fiduciary duty toward his clients. In this case, an immediate custodial sentence is entirely proper.

Just Anonymous

It is an embarrassment that this individual has taken up space in this profession for so long, when there are so many excellent candidates who try – and fail – to get pupillage each year.

Alex

To be fair, excellent candidate get pupillage. Many of us have to accept less then excellence when offering pupillage.

A. Pedannt

When I was a pupil the verb “to practise” was spelled properly. The profession has gone to the dogs.

Boaz

14 months for buying drugs for yourself. That is fucking disgusting. Even a fine is fucked. It’s his own goddamn choice.

Blade

So officers of the court should feel free to break the law? If you want to break the law you should at least not have the hypocrisy to be a lawyer. If we take your argument to its logical conclusion we should all feel free to exercise our personal choice and break any and all laws, and if that is the case, why bother to have lawyers and courts at all?

Pedant

Technically, a barrister is not an officer of the court.

Victoria

Barrister should be disagree barrister should within the law that he practises as should doctors police and all he xant be trusted if he breaks the law , drugs is not the answer to anything he just messed now to has to pay the price having money does not give privilege the man is disgrace

Sara

Just sentence. He should take responsibility for his own actions and choices, understand the consequences and accept the punishment. He knows that full well being a criminal barrister. And he will know full well the damage the illegal drugs industry does to society.

Bob

We all feed from the banquet of the consequences of our decisions.

As a retired police officer I feel that, as with any individual within the Judicial system, without integrity, you have nothing.

Used this one before

I just you could call him…a criminal barrister

*CSI Miami*yeahhhhhhhh

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