Former criminal bar chair Jo Sidhu KC was joking when he told a young woman in a message sent late at night that he would love to see her twerk, lawyers for the barrister told a tribunal today.
Sidhu faces 15 misconduct charges relating to three women who were either law students or undergoing mini-pupillage at the time of the alleged misconduct. He denies the charges.
Last week, the Bar Tribunals & Adjudication Service tribunal heard that in 2016, Person 1 contacted Sidhu by text message after he gave her his number at a professional event when she asked about the possibility of shadowing him, that he replied late at night, and following a short exchange of messages he said ‘Mmm, I would love to see you twerk’.
On Monday, Alisdair Williamson KC, for Sidhu, questioned Person 1, appearing by video link, about the messages.
Williamson told the tribunal that Person 1 messaged Sidhu at 11.46am. Sidhu replied at around 11pm to the effect of ‘Sorry it took a while to reply, I’m in Birmingham working on a trial’.
In her witness statement, Person 1 said Sidhu’s message was ‘very open ended with no direction’. Williamson said Person 1 messaged Sidhu back, explaining that she was studying, to which Sidhu replied, ‘You live an exciting life’.
Person 1 told the tribunal she thought Sidhu was making a joke at her expense, that she was dull and boring.
Williamson said Person 1 made a direct reference to twerking and told Sidhu, ‘I guess I’m not like the young cool kids listening to grime and twerking’. What she said in a message to a friend at 12.45am was ‘slightly different’ and that she told her friend “Then he said I was boring, so I said I should put on some grime and do that twerking thing”.
‘Person 1, do you see that creates an active mental image of you putting music on and dancing?’ Williamson said.
Person 1 told the tribunal: ‘Does it create a mental image? I’m not sure I can answer that. I messaged my friend. I sent her the screenshot. This was a long time ago. I cannot tell you why I said what I said to my friend.’
Williamson suggested that if Sidhu’s reply was a direct reference to what she had just said, and that she was joking, ‘I suggest his response was also joking’.
Person 1 said: ‘You can suggest it. I didn’t think it was a joke, The tone changed…. I felt like he had gone in a different direction.’ Person 1 said she remembered the ‘Mmm’ in particular ‘because that was the bit that felt very different’.
The tribunal heard that Person 1 then asked Sidhu about the trial in Birmingham and mentioned her boyfriend. ‘Then there was silence,’ Person 1 said.
She ended the conversation by telling Sidhu about sending him her CV but told the tribunal she did not follow up because she took the silence as confirmation of what had happened and ‘did not want to put myself in harm’s way again’.
The hearing continues.
