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EXCLUSIVE SPB partner exonerated after marathon cheat slur

A Squire Patton Boggs partner who was accused by ignorant spectators of cheating in the London marathon has been absolved of any wrongdoing. 

Nick Helm, an infrastructure partner based in the firm's Manchester officer, ran the London marathon on 28 April this year in aid of the charity Guide Dogs for the Blind. He clocked a very respectable time of 3 hours 53 minutes and 36 seconds.

Helm's nipple-chafing effort should have attracted applause. However, a fun-loving armchair pundit got into the spirit of things by calling the lawyer a "cheat" on Twitter, claiming that Helm started the race partway through the course by running out from behind some bins:

Marathon

marathon

marathon

Shame him, ban him, burn him. Oh hang on...

The tweet was picked up by the national press, which included a video of Helm emerging to join the pack:

Marathon 2

But even The Sun was forced to recognise that Helm had gone through all the checkpoints and so, erm, wasn't actually cheating at all. Helm's official race times also provided irrefutable proof that he had gone over the start line. In fact the lawyer was only guilty of getting caught short, a fairly common occurrence during a 26.2 mile race.

Helm now joins an elite group of athletes to have made headlines at the London marathon, albeit for needing to take a piss behind some bins* rather than breaking records or crawling over the line.

Helm told RollOnFriday, “This was my first marathon and if the rather unexpected interest in my call of nature prompts a few more people to donate money to the Guide Dogs for the Blind and beat my target of £2,500, I would be very grateful.”  

In recognition of Helm's marathon effort and for being a good sport, please dig deep-ish and donate to his page here. 

*He couldn't find a bogg.

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Comments

Seriously 10 May 19 08:04

Nick’s a top bloke. The swivel-eyed turd who had the gall to tweet this false accusation ought to crawl back to where he came from.

Anon 10 May 19 09:07

Interestingly he joins an even shorter list of individuals whose London Marathon lavatory problems have brought them to fame.  Mind you, with one of the other notables being a certain Paula Radcliffe, he's in good company!

Interesting that the "eagle-eyed" armchair viewer was too apathetic to actually go on the marathon website and a) find the guy's full details (which is very easy with runner number); and b) in doing so realise he had been through all the checkpoints!  ::sigh:: you wouldn't get away with a half-arsed poorly researched job like that round here!

ambulance chaser 10 May 19 10:02

Libelling a lawyer?  I'd be asking "Mikey" to dip into his pocket.  All for a good cause of course.

Anonymous 10 May 19 10:05

Twitter commentators are hardly keen to check facts and evidence.

 

Hope he hits his fundraising target- good man!

Anonymous 10 May 19 10:28

Made a donation. My favourite donor so far - "The Bin; it was a pleasure to make your acquaintance" 

I knew Nick at DLA Piper 10 May 19 10:48

...and he is a really nice fella; can't believe he got targeted like this :/ I hope the keyboard warrior who dragged his name through the mud will be making a donation to Nick's chosen charity...probably not though, as it's hard to make any money sitting in your mum's basement all day while you smash World of Warcraft and troll decent folk on Twitter…

Malcom 11 May 19 23:01

Nick is a wonderful, hardworking guy who has trained really hard for this marathon and really wanted to raise enough money to buy a puppy to help those whose lives these amazing dogs transform. Please donate he would be so chuffed and show that keyboard amoeba what decency and human nature really can do :)

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