LAWYER STRUCK OFF FOR SEXUALLY CHARGED EMAILS AND CHILD ABUSE EVIDENCE MISCONDUCT
A solicitor who admitted to finding evidence from a young girl in a child sex abuse case 'titillating' has been struck off.Kevin Macpherson, 45, also made a young female trainee feel like a 'sex toy' after discussing her with another woman in a series of sexually charged emails.
The shamed solicitor took a 'shine' to the trainee, known only as TS, and began begging her to join him for dinner, take part in social activities with him, and sent her 136 text messages outside of office hours.
During routine IT work, a colleague discovered Macpherson had been exchanging emails with a woman, Ms D, discussing sex and TS in explicit detail for over two years.
He described her as 'elegant' and said in one message he had a 'good view' of her chest.
Ms D reported him to a legal watchdog after he sent her twisted messages related to evidence in a child sex abuse case he was working on in June 2012.
He was acting on behalf of a boy accused of taking a young girl to a gym before carrying out a sex act.
Macpherson, from Stornoway, told Ms D in an email 'you would have loved what I was reading this morning' before adding 'a statement of a little girl talking about what she saw in a gym.' He admitted to the Scottish Solicitors' Discipline Tribunal (SSDT) that he found the statement from the girl 'titillating' and 'sexually gratifying,' and described misconduct towards the trainee between March 2011 and August 2013.
He also claimed social behaviors were different in 2011.
Macpherson, who ran his own law firm on the island, admitted to misconduct and was found guilty by the SSDT, which considered strike-off as the only appropriate punishment.
It was concluded that his conduct posed a danger to the public and could seriously damage the reputation of the legal profession.
