BBCA former criminal defence solicitor has been charged with the sexual assault and rape against eight men and a woman in the cells of a police station and a magistrates’ court, a court has heard.
Alan Harris, 71, is on trial at Winchester Crown Court, accused of 18 charges of indecent assault, eight charges of sexual assault, three charges of rape and one of another serious sexual offence dating between 1989 and 2015.
The jury heard the alleged offences took place in cells at Charles Cross Police Station in Plymouth and Plymouth Magistrates’ Court.
Mr Harris, from Plymouth, Devon, denies the 30 charges and the trial continues.
Prosecuting, Anne Whyte KC said Mr Harris’s job as a defence solicitor “brought him into contact daily with people, hundreds of them over the years, who were charged with or suspected of criminal offences”.
She said: “It was his job to represent them. It was his job to ensure whatever they had done, they were treated fairly in the criminal justice system. It was his job to get the best possible outcome for them.
“Instead, he used his professional access to his clients as the opportunity to sexually abuse them, often in plain sight, safe in the knowledge that, due to their particular circumstances, they were often impotent to do anything about it or report him at the time.”
‘Owed him favours’
Ms Whyte said custody cells were “places that are designed to deal with criminal offences, not to facilitate them”.
She said many of the complainants were “already institutionalised” in a life of crime and were “utterly dependent” on Mr Harris.
Ms Whyte added: “These individuals were in no position, realistically, to complain about what he was doing – to the custody sergeant, to the judge; who were they going to complain to in a police station or court?
“How were they going to say they had just been raped by a solicitor?”
She said Mr Harris had told one of the complainants that they “owed him favours” and they had been “too frightened” to make a complaint against him.
