If you don’t have the goods, just make something up.

A barrister who championed LGBT+ charity Stonewall has been disbarred after making false homophobia claims. Barry John Harwood was found to have knowingly misled the Bar Standards Board (BSB) after fabricating parts of “serious” allegations against fellow barristers. Mr Harwood, who was the deputy director of advocacy at City law firm DWF, complained about a colleague’s behaviour towards him in March 2019.

What behavior? Referring to Harwood’s partner as his “husband” despite knowing they were in a civil partnership aka not married.

Take your time digesting the horror of it.

But anyway, however trivial, it’s not even a fair cop.

However, the BSB found Mr Harwood had in fact referred to his partner as “husband” and the two of them as “married” in previous WhatsApp messages with the accused.

There was another whopper about a racist nickname that never happened.

Mr Harwood was disbarred by an independent disciplinary tribunal last week and told to pay £5,500 in costs. The barrister watchdog said Mr Harwood failed to act with honesty and integrity, behaving in a way likely to diminish trust and confidence in the legal profession.

Mr Harwood is a long standing advocate of LGBT+ rights with campaign group Stonewall and was named the North [East] senior ‘champion of the year’ at the charity’s regional awards in 2018.

Ah, well there you go. He hung around with a bad crowd.

A BSB spokesman said: “Dishonestly and deliberately making false allegations to a regulator, especially in relation to serious matters such as discrimination and harassment, is wholly incompatible with membership of the Bar and the tribunal’s decision to disbar Mr Harwood reflects this.”

He currently works for a real estate agency based in Dubai. Real estate is not an industry that cares deeply about truth and honesty, so maybe he’ll be fine.