The one thing he didn't want to happen.
BLM accidentally provided a pedophile with confidential videos of a child, then had him declared in contempt of court after he refused to prove that he had deleted them.
Police in Kent broke into Daryll Taylor’s home under a search warrant in 2020 where they found indecent images of children, leading to his conviction and a nine month prison sentence.
However, Taylor sued the Chief Constable of Kent for damage to his door, and the force turned to BLM to defend the claim.
The firm, which is now part of Clyde & Co, was also acting for the Chief Constable in a separate claim which had been brought by a minor in relation to his arrest and search by Kent officers.
Taylor’s claim was struck out, but not before BLM made an unfortunate mistake during the disclosure phase.
Having given Taylor access to an online file-sharing tool, Collaborate, so he could see footage of the police entering his property, “for technical reasons which are not clear” the firm inadvertently also granted him access to videos of the child in the other case which depicted the youth’s arrest, search and interview.
Taylor emailed a BLM employee via Collaborate to let them know, stating, “I Daryll Taylor stil [sic] have access to your uploads despite them having no relation to me. This is a serious privacy violation. Contact your IT to fix this. Technical illitracy [sic] is no excuse, do not let this happen again”.
However, when BLM asked him to delete the videos which he had downloaded he refused to cooperate. Instead Taylor sent “what can fairly be described as somewhat bizarre responses including demands for monetary payment of several thousand pounds”, the court heard.
Taylor ignored court orders to delete the videos and permit IT experts to inspect his devices and when BLM pressed him to comply, he emailed the firm a curt response: “Fuck off and die”.
A second attempt elicited a longer, but no more helpful, reply: “Fuck you, fuck your company, fuck the courts and fuck London I hope you all die Souless [sic] drones Yours sincerely Daryll Taylor”
BLM’s third try earned a one word email: “Die”.
Clyde & Co, which had by that time taken over BLM, fared little better when it took a shot at the problem. “Do not contact me again, and die in the most painful way possible you filthy parasite”, Taylor responded.
Police seized various hard drives, a phone and a tablet from Taylor in the summer, but he still refused to grant the firm permission to check them.
He was also a no-show for the hearing at which he was found in contempt, although he has been ordered to appear for sentencing.
Clyde & Co declined to comment on the bleak comet trail left by its acquisition.
Do you work in private practice? If so, rate your satisfaction below for the RollOnFriday Best Law Firms To Work At 2024.
Comments
17
14
… what did the ICO say when asked for its comment? Had this been reported? Investigated? It’d be nice if you did some journalism for once instead of just reprinting things people send you.
21
10
The story reports the judgment linked in the story, my furious friend.
22
7
Bad day for whichever poor trainee was asked to upload the docs onto the file sharing site.
24
6
GC won't be happy
21
7
The latest in a long line of gaffes which included; not spotting that a paralegal entering his own bank details for an interim payment requested from an insurer client was a suspicious activity, paying £1.3m for dilapidations of a building to be demolished and not realising that a reverse premium for new office space would be paid over the term of the lease. 16 months into the Clyde & Co era and they have already written off an eye watering £3m of BLM WIP. No wonder those poor Clyde’s trainees were worried about their brand “being watered down”
22
9
Taylor sounds weapons grade.
21
10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYkGN3p0WCU
23
9
This is the one thing we didn't want to happen
20
7
serious data breach. Where is the ICO on this?
19
10
Devilface
22
11
I bet Clyde and Co wish they had an undo button
19
9
The usual outcome here at BLM - a clueless trainee or para-legal got sacked for gross misconduct whereas the manager with overall control was found to be blameless but he did hold the door open as the junior got binned. The same p... poor supervision went on in Manchester which allowed that thief to nick all that ££ yet the supervision clearly wasn't at fault. No wonder Clyde is getting rid of some of these characters on the QT - watch out its almost the 2 yr mark too so expect a few CVs to hit the market or some forced retirements
21
12
“Fuck you, fuck your company, fuck the courts and fuck London I hope you all die Souless [sic] drones"
The guy may well be a contemptible paedophile, but you can't fault his views on BLM.
22
7
I wonder if the person who did this is one of the many people who left BLM after the Clyde takeover?
18
11
I for one shall miss BLM. They were always good for a laugh at.
21
9
is this what happens when you have one more finger than everyone else?
20
12
You can’t expect competence when you’re paying such low salaries.
Great move, Clydes
22
14
BLM, still getting bad press despite no longer even existing. Rumours are most of the old BLM London staff have left Clyde since the merger (voluntarily or involuntarily, who knows?). The only ones sticking around are the old trainees who have managed to qualify into a Clyde team on twice as much as their old supervisors. Bizarre set up really.
22
5
Wouldn’t it be refreshing if BLM responded to the insulting messages from Taylor with something like “f00k off yourself you dirty nonce.” This would go some way towards restoring public faith in the legal profession.
20
8
Clydes certainly can pick ‘em.
19
8
@anon 13.28
Mainly voluntarily... Blm staff aren't wanted or made welcome.....you have never seen such misery , Clyde's are purposely making all Blm staff hate it....its a master plan.
18
8
But where can BLM invaders go?
19
2
BLM was run by a bunch of hapless and greedy characters. The underpaid juniors at BLM always did the hard work. My short time there was an eye opening experience. The sheer incompetence of the BLM Partners has been exposed at last and all of those Partners who thought they were untouchable have fallen from grace. Many have gone elsewhere and are struggling. The drama at Ince is a prime example.