A father who was framed by a leading barrister in a child custody case has spoken for the first time about the extraordinary chain of events that led to him uncovering the deception. Bruce Hyman, a leading barrister and radio and television producer, is facing jail after admitting to perverting the course of justice earlier this month. He was representing a divorced woman fighting for custody of her four-year-old daughter in September last year when he tried to falsely incriminate the girl's father. advertisement Hyman sent him an email, pretending to be from a charity campaigning for father's rights, that appeared to support the father's claim that he should be granted greater access to his daughter. When the father tried to present it to the judge at the Taunton family court, Hyman stood up and accused him of forgery. However, through his own detective work, the father was able to track down CCTV footage that showed Hyman sending the email himself. The barrister was later arrested by police. He admitted perverting the course of justice and will be sentenced next month. His career in tatters, he could be the first barrister in this country to go to jail for perverting the course of justice. Yesterday the father, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told of how he almost "fell off his chair" when he learnt that Hyman himself had tried to frame him with the fictitious email. Speaking on Radio 4's Today programme, he revealed how, after the "chastening" exchange in court, later that night he managed to track down the origin of Hyman's false email to an internet shop on Tottenham Court Road, central London. "I did some research on the net about tracking emails and tracked the ones I had been sent to an internet posting service in Manchester," he said. "They released the number of the internet shop on Tottenham Court Road. "I called the shop and within five or six hours they emailed me saying staff had recalled a gentleman coming into the store on the day the emails were sent. "He'd not bought anything but had asked to use their internet services. They then said they'd got him on CCTV and sent me some stills. I nearly fell off my chair." The father added: "Its extraordinary to me on a human level, its unprecedented on a legal level and it's astonishing on any respect. "The conduct of the case is often about smearing a client's opponent and the Hyman affair is the most grievous smearing imaginable." Mr Hyman, who is married with four children and lives in Hampstead, north London, has since been disqualified from the Bar. He is the chief executive of Above Title Productions, his own radio and television company, and has worked with leading producers such as Anthony Minghella, Michael Frayn and David Mamet. He also written scripts for comedians such as Angus Deayton and Johnny Vegas.
Bruce Hyman, the UK barrister who pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice in August was sentenced to one year in prison at Bristol Crown Court yesterday. He is reported to be the only barrister ever to have been sentenced for such an offence. After having pleaded in mitigation to be suffering from agitated depression and presenting a character reference from Sir Mark Potter, Head of the Family Division of the High Court, Hyman will now serve about six months with remission.

Hyman's crime, as reported last month, was calculated to send an innocent father to prison by providing him with a faked Court of Appeal judgment.