A barrister has been banned for 12 months after punching a fashion designer during a performance of Wagner at the Royal Opera House.
Matthew Feargrieve was suspended by a disciplinary tribunal on Wednesday after being accused of professional misconduct.
The Bar Standards Board (BSB) accused Mr Feargrieve of breaching his core duty by behaving in a way that was likely to diminish the trust and confidence the public places in the profession.
Significant sections of society would have their confidence in the profession enhanced if more did punch fashion designers.
Shirley there are sufficient mitigating circumstances. Wagner does that to some people…
Is the fashion designer male or female? It might not have much legal significance these days, but in the real world little details like that are very very important.
Wagner does that to some people…
Glorious moments but dreadful half hours, as someone once said.
A lawyer called Feargrieve? A name worthy of Dickens!
I think it was an American journalist who having been to his first Wagnerian opera described it thus… “What an amazing experience is Mr Wagner’s opera, you sit down in the theatre at 6:30, four hours later you look at your watch, and it’s quarter to seven!”.
I had no idea the public placed any trust or confidence in the legal profession. It’s amazing what we can learn on here!
“Wagner does that to some people…”
The funny thing to me is that Wagner is mostly rather romantic and pastoral. There’s the odd bit like The Ride of the Valkyries, but Verdi has a lot more moments to inspire driving tanks into the Sudetenland.
Mostly, I found it really boring. Maybe after 6 hours of it, you just want to twat someone?
“diminish trust in the profession”
So, he was attending the Opera in a professional capacity? Or had a big sign round his neck saying “I AM A BARRISTER”.
WB
“Maybe after 6 hours of it, you just want to twat someone?”
Got it in one ! 🙂
I only ever found out that Meistersingers was a comedy when someone explained it on Record Review. “Mozart it is not, though.” He said.
The Bar Standards Board has a somewhat unusual set of priorities when deciding whether a member has behaved improperly.
In this particular instance the fashionista was attempting to commit a fraudulent action by occupying a seat costing nearly four times what he had paid for. People, inoffensive white ones to be precise, get fined when attempting something similar on trains.
“The ruling comes after Mr Feargrieve was found guilty of assaulting Ulrich Engler during a performance of Wagner’s Ring Cycle at the Royal Opera House in 2018.”
Not exactly a speedy process then…
And 1200 quid for a seat? ummm.. yeah….
Arsehole assaults bugger. Normally it’s the other way round!
Thank you Witchie!!!!
Witchie 🙂
“Ulrich Engler”
I’ve never really noticed it much in the UK, but in Germanic parts they are called ” springers”, usually students who hang around looking for empty seats in better areas of the theatre.
Having now read the story I’ve come to the conclusion the Kraut had earned his slapping. If you’ve paid that much for your perch you don’t expect German peasants roosting next to you. Like booking a first class long haul* airline ticket & finding Angela Crayons Rayner next to you, been upgraded from cattle.. It’s not often I find reason to praise the legal profession but well done that brief.
*And you can’t get more long haul than Wagner, can you?
@Ottokring
You can tell Meistersinger is a comedy, because not everyone dies at the end. Not many belly laughs, though. 🙂
@TMB – it was Gioacchino Rossini:
“Monsieur Wagner a de beaux moments, mais de mauvais quart d’heures.”
“Baldrick, Germans are not a nice people. Their operas go on for three days, and they have no word in their language for ‘fluffy’.”
I see that according to the Telegraph, The fashion designer was diagnosed with ptsd afterwards. I’m getting pretty fed up with the diagnosis of ptsd being handed out like sweeties to all and sundry. It makes it meaningless and the people who suffer from real ptsd such as ex serviceman from war zones get their problems downplayed because some ponce gets bitch slapped. No doubt Ulrich engler is part of what i call the “2 poofs and a poodle” set.
https://ulrichengler.com/ulrich/
I would not have to sit through ( part of ) a Wagner piece to punch that.
I got curious, so….
Not important enough to have a wiki page.
Moquifen: There are two sets of pics for the name: one is a convicted fraudster, the other is obviously a poofter+.
( As if the chances of anyone professionally doing fashion design isn’t…. well it was 95%, but in the Age of MeToo…. 99.99%?? Any straight guy actually good with fabric will have left the Scene by now and found other uses for his talents. )
I…. do not like to elevate Lawyers above the cesspit they’re generally finding their feed in, but in this case I feel that the man in question should get a commendation.