Stephen Chittenden was key to solving the murder of a teenage girl, stabbed to death by a canal as she walked home.
But the lawyer, 66, says he has now been forced out of his profession for helping to nail the killer and for preventing a miscarriage of justice.
He handed over crucial information which led to the conviction of Michael Brooks for killing Lynn Siddons, in Barrow-on-Trent, Derbyshire, in 1978.
But in doing so, Mr Chittenden breached client confidentiality, prompting an inquiry by the Solicitors Regulation Authority – which has now accused him of ‘utterly unacceptable’ conduct.
He has agreed to remove his name from the official roll of solicitors to avoid being struck off – even though no one has made a complaint about what he did so many years ago.
Interesting to me as I bumped heads with Steve Chittenden several times in court, regrettably before I began to fully understand the role of defence solicitors. I dealt with Michael Brooks when one of Lynn Siddons family had, allegedly, been threatening him, and met Flo Siddons several times, a truly grand old lady.
I posted this as I would be interested in the views here on both the lawyer's actions, and the belated result. Personally, I think he helped overcome a massive injustice, and helped, eventually, to bring a murderer to justice but, like anyone who breaks such rules, he has to accept the consequences, which it seems he does.