Sent to me by the same anonymous person, this follow up article:

How my barrister forged evidence against my husband - and now faces jail

A barrister faces becoming the first in 800 years to go to jail for perverting the course of justice. Here the woman at the centre of the extraordinary case tells how he forged evidence to incriminate her ex-husband.

Bruce Hyman will climb the stone steps of Bristol Crown Court next week to learn if he is destined to make legal history.
As a barrister he has walked up similar steps many times to defend clients, but this time his own liberty is at stake.

He has been warned by a judge that he could go to jail for up to three years for perverting the course of justice.
In 800 years of the English Bar, no barrister has gone to prison for this.
It is a piece of history the ambitious Hyman will not want to make.
And the legal community has been shocked by his misconduct and dishonesty that could have sent an innocent man to prison.
Hyman's crime was that, while acting for a woman in a childaccess case, he attempted to falsely incriminate her former husband in the Family Court by sending him forged legal documents by email.
It was only the man's dogged persistence in tracking down the origin of the emails that led to Hyman being identified, arrested and forced to resign from the Bar.

It is a fall from grace of Shakespearean proportions because Hyman is, without doubt, a flamboyant "player" with many influential friends.
A former radio and theatre producer, he is well known in radio and TV circles, having produced 150 plays and comedy shows, including a remake of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.
His list of celebrity friends includes Robbie Coltrane, Angus Deayton and comedian Jackie Mason.
But he was, perhaps, closest to Clive Anderson, whom he produced in the Radio 4 legal discussion show Unreliable Evidence.
And it was while doing this that he became gripped by the drama of the legal profession.

Five years ago, in his mid-40s and with a family to support, he retrained as a barrister, specialising in media law.
The woman he was representing in the Family Court is former radio executive Karen Sanders Young, 45, once his close and trusted friend and colleague.
But now she says she cannot forgive his "act of betrayal".
She was even arrested as his accomplice - police took her fingerprints, mugshots and DNA.
She is now suing Hyman for legal misconduct.
Following his arrest, she has been left penniless - she says she does not receive any child maintenance - and without legal representation to fight her wealthy ex-husband.
Now in a frank and exclusive interview, this elegant, wellspoken daughter of a Glaswegian policeman - she grew up in Bath after her parents divorced - recounts how Hyman almost destroyed her life.
Sitting in her beautiful four-bedroom cottage in a picturesque Wiltshire village, Karen recalls the horror of her arrest and how she has had to live with gossip and innuendo about her relationship with her former friend.
Speaking softly and beginning to cry, she says: "My arrest was probably the lowest point of my life. I could not believe what was happening.
"When I realised the police thought I had been involved, I burst into tears. I had done nothing wrong, yet I was being treated like a criminal.
"I felt abandoned and betrayed. My life was turning into a Kafka novel.
"I don't know how I've managed to cope with the past three years. Most of my time has been taken up with fighting a nasty divorce with a man whom I feel has used the legal system to bully me around.
"I've wasted more than £50,000 on legal fees and was already close to a nervous breakdown when Bruce pulled his act of insanity.
"My only crime has been to trust a friend, who was helping me handle a protracted and difficult court case.
"I foolishly thought Bruce was my knight in shining armour, but instead of slaying the dragon, he has impaled me with his ill-conceived action."
Now, months after being cleared by the police, she says she has to live with "the rumours and innuendos about my guilt and possible romantic involvement with Bruce. That is so wrong. We have never been any more than working associates and friends".
Karen and her husband Simon Eades, a former Wall Street banker, separated in 2004 after three years together.
The subsequent divorce and child-access fights have landed them in court an incredible 26 times.
And it was during a particularly petty fight over the contents of their former marital home, where Karen continued to live with their young child, that Hyman entered her life as her supposed saviour.
"Bruce and I had been close when I worked with him at his company Above the Title Productions.
"It was a brilliant job and I loved the glamour and excitement of making programmes for the BBC. But we lost touch after I left to get married," she says.
"I was surprised, but delighted, when Bruce rang out of the blue.
"He said he had heard I was having a hard time with my divorce, that he was now a lawyer and asked if he could help in any way.
"He is incredibly kind.
I've seen him help many people with acts of selflessness over the years."
It explains why, even after Hyman's arrest, she refused to believe his guilt - until police showed her CCTV footage of him sending a bogus email to Eades from an electronics shop in London.
"I was torn for a long time," admits Karen.
"I have moments of feeling enormous rage for the trouble he's caused me, but he was incredibly helpful and supportive in the beginning."
One of the first pieces of advice Hyman offered concerned regular visits by Eades to collect his things from the house.
Karen found these visits extremely upsetting.
"Legally, I couldn't throw out his stuff or prevent him coming to get it, so Bruce suggested that I move it all into the summerhouse and hire a private detective to be with me when Simon Eades [she insists on calling him by his full name throughout the interview] next came by.
"It worked brilliantly and gave him no more reason to enter my home. He never came back after this."
When Eades went to the Appeal Court in March 2005 to ask for more contact time with their child, Hyman sat in the public gallery as an observer.
Karen, who was on holiday in Spain at the time, recalls: "Bruce called me spluttering with indignation about what was said in court.
"He said, 'You can't go through this on your own.' I knew he was not a family law specialist, but I trusted him and he was so committed.
"Also, my legal bills were mounting. I had not worked since my marriage broke up and was almost flat broke.
"Bruce's help was a lifeline I grabbed with both hands.
"And he did an amazing job of preparing my legal argument for the next Court of Appeal hearing six weeks later.
"I had intended to represent myself with his guidance.
"But my mother died two weeks before the hearing and I could not face the court in person.
"So my lawyers who had previously represented me came back on board. Bruce even briefed my barrister."
Karen believes it was Hyman's thorough preparation that led to the case being thrown out.
"He has the most amazing mind and attention to detail," she says.
Her ex-husband, however, was still determined to fight for more access to their child.
Within two months he had lodged a second legal challenge.
"This time, in July 2006, Bruce offered to represent me formally,"she says.
"I would be billed by his chambers but he said he would reimburse me out of his own pocket.
"Only if I got costs awarded would he take the money he was due."
Hyman was formally instructed to appear in the Family Court on her behalf on September 27.
Eades was representing himself, as usual.
But this time he was especially smug. He disclosed to her solicitor, as he was legally obliged to do, that he was in receipt of case law which would 'blow her case out of the water".
"I was very nervous," says Karen. "I was worried that Bruce might have missed something, but he kept reassuring me it would be all right."
In fact, he had emailed Eades a fake document carrying the logo of Families Need Fathers, the charity that campaigns for fathers' rights.
It appeared to bolster Eades' claim that he should be granted greater access to his daughter and, believing it to be a genuine judgment, he presented it before the judge at Taunton Family Court in Somerset.
Within minutes of doing so, Hyman pounced dramatically, suggesting not only that the judgment was a forgery but that Eades, who was representing himself, might have been responsible for faking it.
Eades suddenly found himself facing a charge of perverting the course of justice.
The judge adjourned the hearing.
Hyman, thinking he had landed a direct hit, remained calm.
What he didn't know, until Karen explained to him later, was that emails could be traced.
He walked into his legal chambers in some distress a couple of days later and resigned.
EADES, outraged at being duped, tracked down CCTV footage that showed Hyman sending the email from the electronics shop.
Those who know Hyman well have expressed bafflement that he could have been so stupid.
With a home in Hampstead, London, and a chalet in the Alps, Hyman was wealthy and had an enviable social life.
Married with four children, his dinner parties were an eagerly anticipated event.
Although Karen will probably never know for sure what drove Hyman to carry out his outrageous plan, she believes much of it had to do with male ego.
"I think it was testosterone-led," she says.
"He grew to dislike Simon Eades, whom he called a third-rate intellectual. It bugged him that my ex had a PhD and was called 'Doctor' in court.
"Instead of looking out for my best interests Bruce turned it into a competition. He was a poker player who liked to take risks.
"It beggars belief that someone with his intelligence could have been so stupid.
"He was playing with my life and the irony is that, had he left well alone, we would probably have won our argument in court.
"He has left me devastated. If he does go to prison, I hope he takes the time to reflect on the pain he has caused me and his own family."

Devastated: Karen Young's life was almost destroyed




Karen Young at her wedding to Simon Eades




Bruce Hyman ruined his legal career by trying to fool Eades with a forged document

Some good responses from the public:

I'm sure someone somewhere will make good money from the TV film rights to this story - gripping stuff! She doesn't like her ex much though does she? Sounds like someone was willing to do anything to get at him.
- Martin, Manchester


Amazing that a barrister should finish up in the dock. They usually look after their own.
- Mark, Chorley, UK


"...she has been left penniless..."
Penniless people do not usually have a "beautiful four-bedroom cottage in a picturesque Wiltshire village" to live in. Strangely enough dear, they live in grotty council flats on drug dominated estates. When you are truly penniless you might get a little bit of sympathy.
- Philip Meers, Birmingham, England


Ms Johnson has only herself to blame for her 'penury' as she sits in her beautiful 4 bedroom cottage.

Her unwillingness to allow her child to have both parents in her life, is the real issue here. She has spent £50,000+ on lawyers stopping the father of her child having a relationship with his daughter.

This has been sanctioned and encouraged by a despicable family law court system that ensures that parents are encouraged to fight over their children because that is where the financial goodies are (home, child maintenance, proportion of the money pot). Winner takes all.

I suppose she did not know any better, after all it happened to her as a child and the cycle just continues.
- Crashdive, Surrey

The law always protect women and children in divorce settlements. Why did this woman take such drastic measures? Why squabble about contents in a house? She seems to think that her life hangs on who gets the settee. I am sure the judge would not let her go without.
- Anna, Hastings, east Sussex