Four New Square pupil reprimanded by BSB after drug arrest

Readers' comments (29)

• Chris Sheppard | 29-May-2012 10:51 am

  Carrying drugs does not simply demonstrate bad judgement - it makes the carrier guilty of a crime. Even if this man once thought it was all right to use illegal drugs, the fact that he clearly still thinks so makes him utterly unsuitable to be a barrister. The fact that the set is willing to keep him is to their disgrace.

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• Another Hypocrite | 29-May-2012 11:33 am

  Talking as someone who likes to get a bit drunk drinking Pimms on a sunny summer afternoon, who likes a beer; who enjoys polishing off a bottle of wine of an evening; who enjoys the occasional drunken night out getting stuck into rum and coke; who enjoys a few generous measures of whisky now and again; who has had countless drunken nights in his time, many of which in his earlier years he can only remember parts of...
  I condemn this! In fact, I don't just condemn this but think that he should have his career destroyed over it! Despicable!

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• Anonymous | 29-May-2012 12:31 pm

  Probably half the barristers have tried coke.

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• Douglas McBean | 29-May-2012 12:56 pm

  Pompous and pious lads! Let him without sin etc.....Suspect this will change him completely; knock his Eton supremacy attitude (if he has one) out of him....what of course is at fault is the UK's crazy drug laws. Well done 4 Square for showing compassion.

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• Anonymous | 29-May-2012 1:00 pm

  Unbelievable, I didn't realise the Bar accepted criminals into it's ranks.
  Just goes to show, it's not what you are or what you do, it's who you are related to and what School/College you went to.
  Sad day for the bar really to see a clearly intelligent man make a choice to indulge in a criminal activity. His choice shows a complete disregard for the law and values Barristers are supposed to uphold. How his actions have not barred him holding the position of barrister and get away with it is frankly beyond me.
  Smacks of elitism/nepotism of the worst kind. It begs the question had he come from a comprehensive and not Eton and Oxbridge and his father was not a judge would he have been treated with the utmost leniency? I fear the answer is no.

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• Wigged Wonder | 29-May-2012 1:06 pm

  Thank goodness for 4 New Square showing a bit of common sense.
  Chris: the fact there was a caution is a strong indicator that the criminal law aspects of this have been taken care of. This was taken into account by both the BSB and chambers and I think the Bar is considerably better off having them in charge of such matters and not you.

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• Anonymous | 29-May-2012 1:25 pm

  For goodness' sake - what on earth has this got to do with elitism? Everybody makes mistakes; the fact that Mr Mostyn went to Eton makes him no less worthy of redemption than anybody else.
  It has become all too trendy to criticise the Bar for being inaccessible and nepotistic. There might be good reasons for doing, so but this story does not evince any of them. Bringing up the issue at all seems to me to demonstrate an ill-informed reverse-snobbery that is just as bad as the elitism it seeks to condemn.

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• not the boss of you | 29-May-2012 1:32 pm

  taking drugs may be a criminal offence... now... but that is down to current fashions and mores. It is a pity that so many people seem to regard themselves as equipped to be moral arbiters of others. I'm sick of the pseudo-moralistic holier-than-thou censure that spews out at times like this: as a couple of previous comments have expressed, well done 4 New Square, and please, please, get a life, people...

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• Wall Game Pete | 29-May-2012 3:00 pm

  Well, Eton and Magdelene, the hoop's got a hole in... I understand he will now have to endure the life long shame of being referred to as 'Malleable Mostyn' in Chambers. Oh, the indignity of it all!

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• Anonymous | 29-May-2012 3:36 pm

  I remember a guy from uni losing his training contract with a major city firm before he had even started it due to a conviction for fare evasion on the tube.
  Perhaps if he had been caught with a pocket full of coke and E's, been schooled at Eton and had a Judge for a dad he too would still have a career in law.

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