Disgraced Bolton solicitor struck off over indecent images

Sohail Bashir, 61, was handed a suspended jail sentence at Bolton Crown Court back in July 2024 after being caught with the horrific images four years earlier.

He has since been brought before a Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, chaired by Lisa Boyce.

A judgment from the tribunal said: “Within the sphere of regulatory and disciplinary conduct there could be no mitigation to minimise the harm.

“The respondent’s misconduct could only be viewed as extremely serious and no sanction less than a strike off would be sufficient to protect the public and the reputation of the profession.”

Sohail Bahir had previously been brought before Bolton Crown Court (Image: Phil Taylor)

Bashir’s crimes were uncovered back in 2018 after his Facebook page came to the attention of the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children in America.

They told the UK-based National Crime Agency they had traced the page to Bashir, of Tudor Avenue, Farnworth, a solicitor with Allied Law Chambers Solicitors Ltd until March 2024.

He was still practising as a solicitor at the time he was found to have shared an image of a girl between eight and 10 years old with three other people via WhatsApp in February of that year.

The image, showing the girl “disrobing herself,” was sent out by Bashir through a group chat.

Bashir was also found to have “extreme pornographic images,” including one showing a woman performing a sexual act with a dog, in his possession.

He was arrested in August 2020 and ultimately confessed to distributing indecent images and possession of extreme images.

Passing sentence, Judge Nicholas Clarke KC said: “The distribution of such images as you sent out cause incalculable harm to those people who are the subject of those images who become aware that their images have been uploaded onto the internet or shared amongst others and can be viewed essentially for all time and that is why it is so serious that only a custodial sentence can be justified for it.”

The disgraced solicitor was sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for two years, and was ordered to complete 30 rehabilitation activity requirement days with 100 hours of unpaid work.

Judge Clarke also put Bashir on the sex offenders register and made him the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for seven years.

The tribunal judgment said that Bashir admitted all the allegations against him.

They ruled that he be struck off from the roll of solicitors and that he be ordered to pay costs of £2,680.