A barrister has been disbarred for raping a woman, when she was a teenager under 16 and when she was older, while he was a policeman in the 1980s.
A Bar disciplinary tribunal said James Boyle, who was sentenced to 16 years in prison, had been convicted of “horrendous offences” in what it described as a “gross breach of trust”.
The tribunal found that Mr Boyle, called to the Bar in 1999, failed to report to the Bar Standards Board (BSB) that he had been charged with the offences in July 2019 and that in April 2023 he had been convicted at Cambridge Crown Court of one counts of rape and one of indecent assault of a girl under the age of 16 and one count of rape of a woman aged between 16 and 19. All concerned the same person.
The BSB said the offences took place between 1986 and 1988. It was reported, by the BBC and elsewhere, that at that time Mr Boyle was a police officer working for Cambridgeshire Police.
The Bar disciplinary tribunal said Mr Boyle, who maintains his innocence, had referred to the fact that the allegations preceded his call to the Bar in 1999.
Following the dismissal of his appeal against conviction by the Court of Appeal, Mr Boyle had told the tribunal in writing that he was preparing to apply to the Criminal Case Review Commission.
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Police office turned barrister disbarred for rape convictions
