Northern Ireland law society council member resigns as pressure mounts over chief exec’s reference for paedophile cousin

A senior member of the Law Society of Northern Ireland’s council has resigned as pressure mounts on the society and its chief executive, David Lavery, over Lavery’s decision to provide a character reference for his paedophile cousin following his conviction for indecent assault.

News of the resignation of Philip Armstrong less than halfway through his term as a council member coincided with Lavery’s removal yesterday as a member of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) for breaching its code of governance.

“Unfortunately, I found myself increasingly uncomfortable with the current and future strategies of the society, and separately with certain decisions with which I cannot in all conscience agree or wish to be associated,” Armstrong, who chaired the society’s conveyancing and property committee, wrote on LinkedIn.

Lavery’s removal as a human rights commissioner followed an independent review which was launched when it emerged that he had provided a reference for a cousin, teacher William Lloyd-Lavery, who was jailed for two years on 28 April for indecently assaulting four girls at a Belfast school in the 1970s, having been found guilty in January of six counts of indecent assault.

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Sir Chris Bryant, terminated Lavery’s appointment with “immediate effect” after the review found his decision to provide a reference “was capable of bringing the commission into disrepute and demonstrated a severe failure of judgement regarding public office responsibilities”.

In response, Lavery repeated an earlier unreserved apology for what he described as a “serious error in judgement on my part” and “for any hurt and distress that I caused the victims in this case” while the society said it had concluded “an internal process” and would make no further comment due to “the confidential nature of that process”.

It added: “We acknowledge the concern that this has caused. We are committed to facilitating appropriate consideration of the use of character references following conviction, acknowledging that there will be a broad range of views.”

Speaking on Radio Ulster this morning, one of Lloyd-Lavery’s victims, Nicola Bannon, said she was surprised and disappointed by the society’s response and called for it to be more transparent.

She also questioned whether Lavery should remain as chief executive, adding: "If I was in a similar situation, I would resign."

Paul Frew, chair of the Northern Ireland Assembly's Committee for Justice told Radio Ulster the society should be "open and transparent" about the process it had undertaken and that he believed Lavery and the law society should consider his position.

Recently retired solicitor Rosemary Connolly, a former director of legal services at the Fair Employment Commission for Northern Ireland, told GLP she was “extremely disappointed” with the society’s response to the controversy.

She added: “The process they have undertaken lacks transparency and there seems to be an abject lack of appreciation by the society about the damage done through the retraumatisation of victims of sexual abuse by the provision of character references.”