PCC orders suspension from the Register

PCC orders suspension from the Register (07/03/2005)

At a Hearing of the Architects Registration Board’s Professional Conduct Committee in London on 3 March 2005, architect Stephen Charles Manship was suspended from the Register for a period of 18 months.

Mr Manship pleaded guilty to a charge that he had been convicted in July 2004 on five counts of making indecent photographs or pseudo photographs of a child. He was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment, of which he served four and a half months.

In summing up, the Chairman said that the Committee had been alive to the fact that this finding was not meant to be a second punishment. He added that the Committee was aware of the risks of double jeopardy and of the fact that Mr Manship had already paid his debt to society. However, this was a serious matter and, moreover, one which the trial judge had identified as abhorrent to many members of the public.

That notwithstanding, the Committee recognized that the skills and input of an architect were different from those of other professions, and did not believe that Mr Manship would, as a result of his conviction, give a poorer service as an architect at any time in the future.

Therefore, having taken all the factors into account, including the protection of the profession’s reputation, the Committee felt that suspension from the Register for 18 months was the appropriate penalty to impose in this instance.