A senior lawyer on a ‘power trip’ pestered a female lawyer for sex and told her: ‘My problem is attractive women.’
Matthew Barker propositioned the woman during a company weekend away at a country hotel, refusing to leave her room despite repeated requests, a disciplinary hearing was told.
The solicitor sat on her bed, asked for a hug, then told her she would be safe because ‘his p**** didn’t work’, a panel heard.
After being tricked into leaving her hotel room, Mr Barker, who is married, sent the woman – whom he’d left in tears – a text message at 5am, saying: ‘Needing a cuddle.’
Following a hearing of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) he was found guilty of misconduct for inappropriate behaviour, suspended from the profession for nine months and ordered to pay £11,000 in costs.
Senior lawyer Matthew Barker propositioned the woman during a company weekend away at a country hotel, refusing to leave her room.
Mr Barker was a senior member of the firm Clarke Willmott in Southampton.
Mr Barker was a senior member of the firm Clarke Willmott in Southampton at the time.
It arranged a partners’ away day at a spa hotel in Gloucester, which his victim – identified as Person A – also attended.
In the bar, the woman talked to Mr Barker, whom she did not know.
The panel said: ‘She stated that… he became aggressive, and this continued after she became disgruntled at his behaviour, with him telling her he was on the management board.
‘Person A stated that it seemed [Mr Barker] was on a power trip as he boasted about how he made another… female partner cry.’
In the early hours of the morning, Mr Barker, who had been drinking heavily, tried to apologise to the woman and offered to walk her back to her room.
‘Once there, he asked for a glass of water and sat on the bed while the woman poured him one.
‘Person A said she asked [him] to leave as she was tired, but he didn’t leave,’ the panel said.
She became upset and hoped to persuade him to leave by agreeing to his request for a hug.
Instead, he started to rub her back before trying to pull her to the bed.
To escape, she suggested walking him to his room, but in the corridor she quickly went back to her own room and shut the door.
She made a complaint and the firm carried out an investigation.
‘Person A had repeated her request that [Mr Barker] should leave several times but he did not leave,’ the panel said.
‘Person A then started crying and said to [him], ‘You tried to break me. Is that what you tried to do? Congratulations, you’ve broken me, I’m crying’. He said, ‘My problem is attractive women’.
‘When Person A again asked [him] to leave, he asked if he could lie next to her all night.
‘[He] said that she would be safe and ‘proceeded to explain that his p**** didn’t work’.
‘The following day she saw a text from [Mr Barker], timed 5.08am which said, ‘Needing a cuddle’.’
When confronted with the complaint Mr Barker said he was ‘filled with regret and monumentally apologetic’ and that he felt like ‘a fool’.
The SDT has only just sanctioned Mr Barker because it was not aware of Person A’s June 2012 ordeal until recently.
It said: ‘[His] conduct towards Person A was inappropriate, unwanted, left her feeling uncomfortable and was upsetting. [He] indicated a desire for intimate… physical contact.
‘There was therefore a clear power imbalance, notwithstanding Person A seeking to essentially stand up for herself… but nonetheless being upset by [Mr Barker’s] apparent attack on her and his aggressive approach.’
The tribunal heard that Mr Barker was no longer working as a solicitor.