A former coroner has been struck off the roll of solicitors after playing down to his bosses the extent of criminal allegations against him. Chinyere Inyama, who formerly sat in West London, told the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal that he had been ‘embarrassed’ to tell the Chief Coroner’s Office over the phone that he had been questioned by the police over allegations of sexual assault and rape.
Instead, when he phoned two days after his police interview, he described the allegations being made against him as ‘touching up’. The Solicitors Regulation Authority, prosecuting, said Inyama had ‘chosen to underplay’ the seriousness of the allegations and in doing so acted dishonestly.
The criminal allegations against Inyama were not pursued and he has never been charged with any sexual offence.
The tribunal found Inyama ‘did not provide a full and frank account’ of the nature of the investigation he was facing and so misled the chief coroner. It was found he knew he was under a duty to report the allegations and by failing to do so he acted dishonestly and without integrity.
The tribunal heard that Inyama had been questioned in 2021 by officers from Nottinghamshire Police about allegations that he had raped and sexually assaulted a former client in a sauna and a hotel. The allegations went back more than 15 years to when Inyama practised as a mental health solicitor, and the female client was said to be highly vulnerable.
Inyama stressed to the tribunal that the criminal allegations had been wholly unfounded and lacking any substance. But when it came to telling the details to James Parker, head of the Chief Coroner’s Office, this was ‘highly embarrassing’.
‘There was no script, no preparation by me of what to say,’ Inyama told the tribunal. ‘Without even thinking I said it [the criminal allegations] was touching up. I couldn’t even get the locations [of the alleged crimes] right. The reason was because it was just embarrassing to say those words.’
Inyama said he told Parker that the case had been referred to a RASSO (rape and serious sexual offences) team, giving him an accurate indication of the nature of the allegations being made.
After the tribunal ruled that he had acted dishonestly, Inyama submitted that he should not be struck off, saying he was ‘not thinking clearly’ when he spoke to the chief coroner. ‘This was a phone call, one occasion that I can describe as a moment of madness. It was not a dishonest thought-out course of conduct. ‘
He added that he had already lost his job as a coroner in West London as a result of what he said during this phone conversation, and so losing his status as a solicitor would be 'unfair’.
The tribunal ruled that he should be struck off and should pay £15,000 costs. Reasons will be published in around seven weeks.
