13:35 EDT, 3 February 2021
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A barrister who dealt the chemsex pills that killed his teenage boyfriend told a misconduct hearing that most of the charges against him are ‘rubbish.’
Henry Hendron, 40, bought £1,000 of mephedrone and GBL from former BBC radio producer Alexander Parkin, 45, to deal ‘in bulk’.
He gave detailed instructions to his boyfriend Miguel Jimenez, 18, on how to use and package the drugs.
Hendron woke up to find Miguel lying dead next to him in bed at his exclusive flat in London’s Temple - the collection of chambers where Britain’s top lawyers and judges are based.
He dialled 999, but the teenager had suffered a lethal overdose of a combination of mephedrone, known as ‘meow meow’, and GBL in January 2015.
Service Complaints Ombudsman Appointment announcement
The Ministry of Defence is pleased to announce the appointment of Mariette Hughes as the next Service Complaints Ombudsman for the UK Armed Forces.
From:
18 January 2021
Ms Hughes appointed from 12 January 2021, succeeds Nicola Williams who has carried out the role since 2015.
The role of the Service Complaints Ombudsman was established by the Armed Forces Act 2006, as part of the Service Complaints system which came into effect from 1 January 2016. The complaints system allows a member of the UK Armed Forces to make a complaint if they believe they have been wronged in a matter relating to their service.
The Office of Legal Complaints is
consulting on a business plan and budget for 2021/22 which includes a 19% rise in spending to £15.26m. That figure, according to the OLC’s figures, would then rise again in 2022/23, to £16.16m.
A similar appeal to increase the budget was made – and subsequently rejected - in 2020 and in its response to the consultation the Law Society has publicly questioned how the ombudsman can ask for more funding at such a precarious time for so many in the profession.
David Greene, president, said: ‘Like all of us LeO is operating in a challenging environment because of the pandemic but with incomes hit due to the decline in the economy LeO seems out of step to request an increase in resources on this scale. Especially when LeO’s performance over the last year is a real concern, with a steep rise in its backlog and decline in the number of cases closed, even taking into account the impact of the pandemic.’
11 January 2021
Proprietor of Beaumonde Law Practice in Harrow
When young, I wanted to be a doctor like my parents. However, I decided to become a journalist. My parents disapproved so we compromised on law.
I completed my LLB at Bristol Polytechnic. I then went to the College of Law. I did a conveyancing seat at a Bromley firm, and then a mixture of wills, civil and criminal litigation at a Watford firm. I clerked Crown court hearings and carried out repossession hearings.
I qualified in 1992 and accepted a temporary assignment conducting repossessions for a firm in Basildon. I was then employed, in 1994, as a solicitor in the criminal department of a Harrow firm. I qualified as a duty solicitor at both police stations and magistrates’ courts. I left as head of department.
2021-01-08T16:16:00+00:00
Super-model Linda Evangelista once suggested she wouldn’t wake up for any less than £10,000. So it’s unlikely she would be interested in helping to turn around the ailing Legal Ombudsman service for just double that.
The Office for Legal Complaints is seeking a new service complaints adjudicator to provide an independent and impartial review of complaints about its service at the final stage of the complaints process.
Given the ombudsman has had to beg for a £2.5m hike in its budget and recently described an ‘unsustainable’ 5,000 people soon waiting for an investigation into their issue with their lawyer, it’s likely the service might be fielding a few complaints in the coming months.