On the 14 March edition of BBC's flagship panel discussion show Question Time, an audience member made an impassioned interjection on the subject of a second ‘Brexit' referendum — the show's producers evidently felt the clip was sufficiently incendiary to upload the clip to the official Question Time Twitter account.
"We had a referendum. That wasn't meaningless. Say we have a second referendum, or a third referendum, where does it end?! Why don't we honour what people voted for, and take a view whether that was right or wrong? People got out of their beds, went down to their polling stations and voted. It is nothing but sheer arrogance of people that have lost, and want to subvert democracy! It will be the end of democracy in this country if parliament can't honour what they said they'd do two years ago. It's parliament's fault for not getting its own house in order!" he fulminated.
‘It is nothing but sheer arrogance of people that have lost, and people that want to subvert democracy’
— BBC Question Time (@bbcquestiontime) March 14, 2019
This audience member says he is against another referendum on leaving the EU. #bbcqt pic.twitter.com/0kRDEwo4Dz
Users quickly pointed out the ranter in question, Henry Hendron, has close connections to the Conservative party — and was suspended from practising law for three years after supplying ‘chemsex drugs' to his teenage boyfriend, who later died from an overdose.
‘Should've Known Better'
At one point, Hendron looked tipped for greatness in life. At just 17, he addressed the 1998 Conservative Party conference and called for the reintroduction of corporal punishment. He went on to become a successful barrister, charging up to US$2,320 (£1,750) per day to a roster of celebrity clients, including Conservative MP Nadine Dorries, the Earl of Cardigan and UK Apprentice winner Stella English in her legal action against Alan Sugar's firm Viglen.
BBC Question tonight (in the loud audience) on brexit #bbcquestiontime #questiontime pic.twitter.com/Zjr6llDRpD
— Henry Hendron (@henryhendron) March 14, 2019
That would change in January 2015, when he awoke to find his 18-year-old boyfriend Miguel Jimenez lying in bed next to him dead from a drug overdose. After police discovered Hendron's fingerprints on the jars and envelopes containing the drugs at his flat, Hendron was arrested and charged with supplying drugs.
In a sympathetic interview with BBC Radio 4's Today Program in April 2016, Hendron stated the pair had spent a "normal" day together.
"We had dinner, we had some wine, and my partner had quite a bit of wine, and then at midnight he just said 'shall we have some drugs?'. I was working the next day, so I didn't have any on that occasion, but he did. He had some G [GHB]. It was quite a nice experience and we went to sleep. I woke up and he was dead, next to me. I'd never seen a dead person before but when I turned him over, he was non-responsive, he was purple in the face and his face was frozen," he said.
New years eve message pic.twitter.com/dBM5AAbpFK
— Henry Hendron (@henryhendron) December 31, 2018
He explained that he felt "responsible" every day for Jimenez' death, as he was "older" and "should have known better".
"I was 34 then, he was only 18. It should have been me saying 'we're not going to do this'… I didn't make that call when I should have done, and for that reason, and that reason alone, I put his tragic death on my shoulders," he added.
However, when he was sentenced the next month, receiving a community order with 18 months supervision and 140 hours unpaid work, media reports suggested that far from a "normal" evening spent together, Jiminez' death followed a two-day chemsex drug "orgy", for which Hendron purchased US$1,330 (£1,000) worth of Mephedrone and GHB. Curiously, at least some of the drugs were provided by award-winning ex-BBC producer Alexander Parkin, who fled across rooftops to escape police when authorities raided his "reinforced chemsex drugs den", at which US$13,250 (£10,000) worth of chemsex drugs were found.
Impending Reinstatement
He was also banned from practising law for three years, meaning he can return to the bar in May this year.
His website — on which he refers to himself as an "accidental sailor" making a "haphazard attempt to sail around the world" — offers "legal consultancy services", while noting he cannot provide ‘reserved legal activities' as defined by the Legal Services Act 2007 and is not a "practising barrister", due to his practising certificate having been "temporarily suspended".
"Google me if you don't know why and want to!" he suggests.
