Lawyer cleared of possessing indecent images of children describes three years of 'living hell'

Case has cost Tim Varchmin two jobs, as well as hundreds of thousands of pounds in lost earnings and on legal fees

At the Old Bailey, Mr Varchmin was found not guilty of possessing indecent images of children and crystal meth (AFP/Getty)

A high-flying City lawyer has described his three-year “living hell” of being wrongly accused of possessing indecent pictures of children, after opening up his home for chem-sex parties.

Tim Varchmin, 44, a former senior lawyer at Barclays in Canary Wharf, was overwhelmed by emotion when he was cleared of having the images on his computer and mobile phone.

Officers who raided his luxury flat in Lancaster Gate, west London, in 2014, also uncovered crystal meth on a glass coffee table next to a crack pipe.

But Mr Varchmin denied it belonged to him, explaining he would invite men for drug and sex parties through Grindr and give them free rein to do what they wanted.

Following a trial at the Old Bailey, Mr Varchmin was found not guilty of seven charges of possessing indecent images of children and possessing 830 milligrams of crystal meth, a class A drug.

Mr Varchmin embraced his lawyer Richard Hendron and thanked the jury which acquitted him after three hours of deliberations, bringing an end to his three years of “living hell”.

The case has already cost Mr Varchmin two jobs, hundreds of thousands of pounds in lost earnings and a fortune on legal fees.

He was also forced to discuss his private life and HIV status in public as part of his defence.

The court had heard how Sky Broadband had alerted the National Crime Agency’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection team to suspicious activity on the defendant’s computer.

On the morning of 17 October 2014, police searched Mr Varchmin’s home addresses in Lancaster Gate and Edgware Road and his office in Canary Wharf.

When officers went to the Lancaster Gate flat, they “pounded on the door” for five minutes and smashed it down when no one answered.

They found 45,000 images and 106 movies on his iPhone and Apple computer, the vast majority of which were “adult porn”, jurors were told.

Of the indecent images of children that formed the charges, many were duplicates, the court heard.

Giving evidence, Mr Varchmin said he began hosting chem-sex parties with his former German boyfriend Jacob after receiving the “devastating” news that they had both contracted a drug-resistant strain of HIV.

He told jurors: “It is a life-changing event. It’s something you have to come to terms with. That bonded us together, but at the time we were fighting over it. We developed a more aggressive sexual life.

“We had the feeling that now these stages of HIV were not a concern anymore; we could have more sex with other men, unprotected sex as well. That was our idea.”

The defendant denied the crystal meth was his, saying it was Jacob who used it and he only took GHB.

But prosecutor Roger Daniells-Smith said Mr Varchmin had to “take responsibility” if he gave unsupervised and unhindered access to his computer.

He said: “If you lie with dogs, you get fleas. If you allow people you do not know to come and use your equipment, you have to be responsible for that equipment.”

He alleged the defendant, who was born in Hamburg, had searched the internet for indecent images of children using German words, but Mr Varchmin argued it could also have been his boyfriend.

Following his acquittal, Mr Varchmin said: “I am grateful that having been so badly let down by those I once trusted, the trust I chose to place in the jury has been repaid. I have been throughout the three years of this prosecution, which has been a living hell.

“It is absolutely correct that the police act to protect children and minors from sexual abuse. It is absolutely right that those who perpetrate and view sexual abuse of children are prosecuted with vigour.

“But it is disproportionate to prosecute every case simply as a point of policy where the evidence against a single individual is so weak and where any number of people could have committed the crime.

“My mistake was to react badly to my HIV diagnosis, to trust those who did not deserve to be trusted and to find solace from the shock of my illness in the self-destructive world of chem-sex.”

Mr Hendron said the case had exposed a chem-sex “epidemic” as well as the weakness of the prosecution evidence.

He said: “The chem-sex scene in London is at epidemic proportions. Hundreds of gay men are dying in London annually, while many more are having their lives destroyed as they spiral out of control, unable to hold down jobs or maintain relationships.

“More needs to be done to halt this epidemic. Mr Varchmin has got out of the destructive chem-sex scene, but at a huge financial and emotional cost to his life and reputation, betrayed by those he unwisely trusted.”

PA