A solicitor who denies stalking told a magistrates' court yesterday that his alleged victim initiated physical sexual contact in the lifts of the Royal Courts of Justice.
Andrew Jonathan Milne, 63, who qualified in 1986 and has held ‘continuous and consecutive' practising certificates since then, appeared at Stratford, London, where he denies a single offence of stalking without fear.
In his evidence in chief, Milne said he first became aware of the complainant, court blogger Daniel Cloake, in ‘2018 or 2019’ adding: ‘Whenever I went to court for myself or for clients, he seemed to be there attending the hearing.'
Asked about a complaint made to the Solicitors Regulation Authority, Milne said: ‘[The SRA] have a vetting out procedure where people’s potential complaints were not eligible to go forward. I found it surprising it was not vetted out. In my opinion, it never should have been put to me.
‘The complaint did not result in any disciplinary action.’ Milne told the court no regulatory decisions had been made against him.
The court previously heard how Milne and Cloake had two lunches at the Law Society's Chancery Lane headquarters.
Milne, who described the Law Society as a ‘private members club for lawyers and their guests’, said during one of the lunches, Cloake told him ‘he was gay and in love with me’.
‘I was in shock at this stage frankly. I had a lot of information to process,’ Milne added.
At one lunch, Milne said Cloake asked him ‘to employ him as a paralegal. He felt he had done perhaps half of the work to be regularised [through an apprenticeship]’. Milne told the court he had put a business venture to Cloake during the lunch. Before the first lunch, Milne said he and Cloake shared a lift in the Royal Courts of Justice following a costs hearing and while in the lift, Cloake had placed Milne's hand on Cloake's 'groin area over his trousers'.
It was put to Milne that Cloake, in his evidence during the trial, said he had emailed the solicitor only once. Milne said this was ‘completely untrue’. The court previously heard that Milne sent around 124 ‘pieces of communication’ to Cloake and doorbell camera footage showed Milne at Cloake's home.
The trial continues.
