A TV and radio producer who retrained as a barrister became the first member of his profession yesterday to be jailed for perverting the course of justice.

Bruce Hyman, who was inspired to take up law while producing the Radio 4 legal programme Unreliable Evidence, fabricated evidence that could have led to an innocent man being jailed.

Bristol Crown Court heard that Hyman invented a fictitious legal precedent which he e-mailed to a father fighting for custody of his child. He sent the e-mail with a note of support from the pressure group Families Need Fathers. When the man quoted the precedent in court in support of his case, Hyman, who was representing his ex-wife, leapt to his feet and denounced it as a forgery.

The distraught father, Simon Eades, a Wall Street banker, was warned that he faced jail and the loss of his child if the precedent turned out to be fabricated. Dr Eades turned detective. He found that the e-mail had been sent from an internet shop in Tottenham Court Road. The owner e-mailed him the images from the shop’s CCTV camera, which revealed the sender to be Hyman.

Michael Meeke, QC, prosecuting, said that if Dr Eades had not been so computer literate and able to find the origin of the e-mail, he may well have been prosecuted. Hyman’s lawyer, Paul Dunkels, said his client had been depressed after being rejected for a permanent post at his London chambers in 2005 and had turned to drugs and alcohol that clouded his judgment.

Judge Tom Crowther told Hyman that a 12-month jail term was the minimum he could impose. He also ordered him to pay £3,000 compensation to Mr Eades and £3,457 costs.

Family and friends of Hyman, including the actress Maureen Lipman, heard a psychiatrist say that he was at risk of suicide if he was sent to prison.

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