Warwickshire County Council leader George Finch's plea for his code of conduct hearing to take place behind closed doors split councillors on a standards panel – but he got his way.

The three-strong panel of county councillors – Cllr John Waine, Cllr Yousef Dahmash and Cllr Richard Dickson – voted two-one in favour of holding Wednesday's hearing in secret.

They went on to deliberate external solicitor Claire Ward's finding that Cllr Finch had breached the standards that all councillors sign up to by publicising comments that "could have jeopardised" a child rape case in a letter that he published on social media on August 3, 2025.

His letter, carrying the official crest of Warwickshire County Council, remains live on his X and Facebook profiles.

The panel has sole discretion over whether standards hearings should take place in public or in secret.

Warwickshire County Council's constitution allows for any information that could identify an individual or the deliberations of a standards hearing to be considered as exempt from public meetings or publication.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service made representations to the panel, citing standing order 36.4, which states that information "is only exempt" if the public interest in keeping it under wraps outweighs "the public interest in disclosing the information".

We also asked that any panel members voting to take it into private session explain why and how their reasons related to any advice from council officers or its commissioned legal professionals.

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Cllr Finch then made his representations.

"For me it is very simple," he told the panel.

"Whereas I would prefer this meeting to be in the public domain, I think topics that could be discussed could be of some reputational damage or harm to the council or people within the panel.

"I would rather things that are said (are) left in a confidential setting. I do want transparency, 100 per cent, but to have full access to what I want to say it would be best suited for it to be a private setting."

The panel then went into private session to consider whether the whole hearing should be public or private with chair Cllr Dahmash handing over to another external solicitor Simon Goacher of Weightman's LLP, to explain the verdict.

He said: "The panel carefully considered the public interest in this case and the factors that applied, particularly the strong interest in transparency when it comes to matters relating to member conduct.

"They also balanced that against the need of fairness to the subject member to present their case as fully as possible and also the rights of individuals, their personal information and data, not just the subject member but other people who may be referred to and identified in the hearing.

"Balancing those factors together, the panel reached a decision by a majority of two to one that the press and public should be excluded because (of) the public interest in maintaining the exemption and moving into a private hearing."

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The hearing was attended by the three panel members, the council's independent person on standards Ray Tomkinson, Mr Goacher, himself a former head of legal at a council in Cheshire, and Cllr Finch. Monitoring officer Sarah Duxbury, the council's most senior legal professional, was also present alongside legal services manager Sarah Cowen.

Cllr Scott Cameron was present at the start but told he could not stay once the hearing was taken into private session.

Before exiting, we enquired as to how individual panel members voted. Cllr Dahmash replied: "After the meeting there will be a press release, I assume."

We asked whether panel members would be prepared to confirm how they voted but none were.

Deliberations are known to have lasted for more than three-and-a-half hours. Cllr Finch was approached as he exited Shire Hall shortly after 6pm but he declined to comment.

Whether or how any decision will be publicised, or whether a final verdict was reached in the end, has yet to be confirmed.

If the independent findings were upheld, the panel would still have to come to an agreed position on sanctions with Cllr Finch or refer its recommended sanctions to a meeting of all 57 councillors.