A top barrister, Henry Hendron, has been struck off by the Bar Standards Board (BSB) after attempting to buy drugs from clients he was representing at Woolwich Crown Court. The 42-year-old lawyer was jailed for 14 months last June for attempting to purchase Class A methamphetamine and then Class C GBL from his clients, Arno Smit and Ezra Benson.
Hendron, who had represented both men on drug supply charges, was arrested outside Belmarsh prison in May last year while visiting Smit as his lawyer. An independent disciplinary tribunal concluded on July 3 that Hendron should be disbarred.
A BSB spokesperson stated, “Possessing and encouraging the supply of Class A drugs is clearly a very serious matter. The conduct for which Mr Hendron was convicted, including being involved in his client’s criminal activity, is clearly entirely unacceptable behaviour for a barrister and the Tribunal’s decision to disbar him reflects this.”
Previously, a court heard that Hendron had asked to buy drugs from Smit in September 2021, just weeks before his client was arrested. He subsequently represented Smit at the police station, the magistrates’ court, and at Woolwich Crown Court, where Smit entered not guilty pleas in November 2021 but was later jailed.
Hendron pleaded guilty to three counts of intentionally encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence and one count of possessing Class A drugs. Sentencing judge Jonathan Mann KC remarked, “You were messaging a client of yours who was later to face crown court proceedings for supply of drugs, you were encouraging him to supply you with drugs, then went to court to represent him.”
Hendron, who was called to the Bar in 2006, was known for representing prominent clients, including the Earl of Cardigan. In 2009, he acted in a civil matter for then-Tory MP Nadine Dorries, who later served as culture secretary in Boris Johnson’s government.
However, Hendron’s career took a downward turn after his 18-year-old boyfriend Miguel Jimenez was found dead at their shared flat in Pump Court, Temple, in the City of London, after taking a lethal cocktail of chemsex party drugs. Hendron admitted buying £1,000 worth of M-cat (Meow Meow) and GBL from award-winning BBC producer Alex Parkin and was handed a community order with 140 hours of unpaid work at the Old Bailey in 2016. Parkin was sentenced to 200 hours of unpaid work.
Following his 2016 convictions, Hendron, from Soho, central London, was suspended by the Bar Standards Board for three years. He was further reprimanded and prohibited from undertaking public access work for two years after a disciplinary hearing in 2021 revealed he had misrepresented himself as a practicing barrister while suspended.
The decision to disbar Hendron marks the end of a tumultuous career for the once-prominent barrister.
