A barrister is taking his former employers to court after he was suspended over a BDSM session with a colleague in his office.

Robert Jones, 40, was a senior barrister at London firm LEXLAW when he spanked a junior employee over the desk of a partner at the firm who was in court at the time.

The pair exchanged messages which contained a BDSM sex contracts which included bondage preferences, safe words and agreed limits.

A salary dispute on Friday, June 6 last year resulted in Mr Jones handing in his notice. Two days later the company's managing director emailed him urging him to reconsider.

But when he refused, on the Monday LEXLAW suspended him for bringing his hobby to work citing the spanking incident which occurred months previously.

Mr Jones retaliated by suing the company, accusing them of breaching the Data Protection Act by accessing his personal messages in order to build a case against him.

He said this evidence, relating to the 2016 incident, was used simply so that LEXLAW would not have to pay him for his notice period and the barrister has also field a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office.

The law firm told legal website Roll On Friday: "We can confirm that inappropriate workplace activities took place last year when a senior barrister sent a sexual contract to a very junior employee.