Leading QC told 'sectarian joke'

Donald Findlay QC is one of Scotland's leading defence lawyers

A leading defence QC has been accused of "unacceptable" behaviour after he was reported to have made sectarian comments in an after-dinner speech.

A tribunal of the Faculty of Advocates - the professional body for Supreme Court lawyers - has been hearing evidence against Donald Findlay.

The faculty's complaints committee has already heard the allegations but the QC submitted a written defence.

He has now been accused of bringing the faculty into disrepute.

Mr Findlay said that he did not think that his joke about the Pope, which he told at a Rangers supporters event, could be construed as offensive.

When the possibility of this joke was drawn to my attention and it was worked out how to tell it, it didn't cross my mind people would find it offensive Donald Findlay QC

It was also reported that he told a second joke about a nun during the after-dinner speech in Larne, Northern Ireland.

Two complaints were made to the faculty after his appearance at the event in May 2005, about a month after the death of Pope John Paul II.

Mr Findlay was reported to have told the audience, "it's very smoky in here tonight, has another f****** Pope died?".

Speaking at the faculty disciplinary tribunal in Edinburgh on Monday, Mr Findlay insisted that was not the way he had told the joke.

'Unreserved apology'

He stressed that in telling the joke it was not his intention to cause offence.

He told the tribunal panel, chaired by former judge Lord Coulsfield: "To the best of my recollection the way I told the joke was to blow clouds of smoke about the place, cough, splutter, and say 'f*** sake has another Pope died'."

Mr Findlay added: "When the possibility of this joke was drawn to my attention and it was worked out how to tell it, it didn't cross my mind people would find it offensive."

The lawyer offered an "unreserved apology" to the two men who had complained to the faculty about his remarks if they had been offended.

He explained that the joke was not about the death of Pope John Paul II, saying: "It was, in this modern era, poking fun at the practice of announcing the election of a new pontiff by puffing smoke out of a chimney."

The committee will issue a written decision at a later date.