Robert Woodcock QC

Education

• LLB

Areas of Practice

Crime

Robert Woodcock has been practising criminal law all his professional life. He believes strongly that so complex is the legislation and so furious the rate of change that only specialist criminal advocates have a chance of offering the service required.

He has for many years prosecuted and defended cases of the utmost seriousness and, sometimes, sensitivity. He has considerable experience in cases involving allegations of sexual abuse by perpetrators of all ages and on victims of all ages and both sexes. He has led for the Crown in homicide prosecutions and conducted them alone. He has also led for the defence in numerous large-scale drug conspiracies. Fraud cases are also handled by him. He is able to say that he has been led for the defence and the crown by some of the finest Leaders in the land and believes that a wealth of prosecuting makes him a better defender as defending makes him a stronger prosecutor.

He has recently successfully defended in cases involving the Percy Huntsman and the Ullswater Huntsman.

R v Margaret Pick (2000)
Prosecution of a lady who conducted a campaign of harassment that escalated to blackmail. The victim was an internationally renowned sports personality and TV presenter and pundit. She was convicted but tragically committed suicide whilst awaiting sentence in custody.

R v Bradley (2005)
Junior for the Crown in resisting an appeal against conviction for robbery where reliance at trial upon a previous conviction for robbery gave rise to that appeal. The appeal turned on the construction of transition provisions and whether or not a trial had started before or after the commencement of provisions of the CJA 2003 in respect of Bad Character Evidence.

R v Stephenson (2005)
Prosecution of a young man convicted of a relatively minor offence of grievous bodily harm whose victim sadly died over one year later whereupon this second prosecution arose. It was one of, if not the first prosecution for a homicide offence where causation was proved by an offence beyond its anniversary but after the change in the law.

R v Faulder and others (2005)
Junior for the successful defence of Faulder in a review by the Court of Appeal of a series of so-called "Shaken Baby" cases referred by the CCRC.

R v Voisey (2006)
Junior for the Crown. The defendant had stolen into the home of a mother and child by night. At that time the child victim was in the bath alone, she aged 6 years. He removed her from the bath and the house and drove off with her seriously sexually assaulting and raping her before anyone knew she had gone. He then drove her home leaving her naked in the snow covered street. DNA evidence and other scientific trails provided the evidence against him in addition to the forensic destruction of his alibi.

R v T (2005)
Acted alone for the defendant, a barrister, whose computer was seized and found to contain many thousands of indecent images of children. These had been traded for like images over a period of years within a network of like-minded men.

R v Curtis, Hawks and Towers (2007)
Led for the Crown. These three young men (one was a youth) were prosecuted and convicted of murder. They had enticed a resident out of his home at night. His response was initially in remonstration of their disorderly conduct. In prosecuting them successfully for murder the Crown's case was that even though only one weapon was used to stab the deceased all three were armed and all three shared the same intent. These convictions have been upheld by the Court of Appeal.

R v Thompson (2007)
Junior for the defence in a case of historic sexual allegations made against a prominent figure in the sporting world. He was acquitted. The evidence at trial clearly demonstrated the allegations could have been made maliciously and conceived from a desire for revenge or blackmail.

R v Chisholm (2009)
This case involved reliance upon the provisions recently enacted for witness anonymity. The first trial was abandoned midway through when the case of R v Davis was decided and retried after the passing of recent legislation. Anonymity was granted for numerous witnesses to an horrific daylight stabbing of underworld characters by a rival gang of whom this was the leading light. In prosecuting this case a successful resistance of an interlocutory appeal was required before the retrial began.

Professional Membership

• North Eastern Circuit