Solicitor ‘restrained’ in court after judge helped them skip security checks

A judge has apologised after a solicitor who refused to comply with security checks had to be restrained by court staff when she let them into the building through an “alternative entrance”.

Judge Jenna McKinney, who was sitting as a magistrate, was anxious for a court hearing involving the solicitor to go ahead when she let them in, a Judicial Conduct Investigations Office report said.

She has since resigned as a magistrate, but still sits as a tribunal judge for the Immigration and Asylum Chamber.

The duty solicitor had been “declined re-entry to the court for refusing to comply with security checks” in May 2024, the report said.

Members of the public usually have to walk through a metal detector and have their bags searched every time they go into court, but professional users like solicitors can sometimes skip the checks.

Neither the solicitor or the court in question were named in the report.

Judge McKinney accepted that she allowed the solicitor to “get back into court through an alternative entrance”.

“This led to a dispute between the solicitor and security staff, resulting in the solicitor having to be restrained,” investigators said.

Judge McKinney told the probe that her aim was “solely to ensure that a case involving several parties who were due to be represented by the solicitor was able to proceed”.

The judge “accepted with hindsight that her actions were inappropriate and apologised for them”, the report said.

Judge McKinney, who has a previously unblemished record, was handed formal advice for misconduct.

A spokesperson for the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office said: “The Senior President of Tribunals, on behalf of the Lady Chief Justice and with the Lord Chancellor’s agreement, has issued Tribunal Judge Jenna McKinney of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber with formal advice for misconduct.”