Called to the Bar 1978/Inner Temple
QC 2000
Recorder : (Authorised to try Class 2 cases)

Education

• Trinity College, Cambridge BA 1977
• College of Law (Bar examinations) 1978

Areas of Practice

Criminal Law

All aspects of crime, maintaining a balance between prosecuting and defending, and focussing on the most serious allegations of violent and sexual assault including homicide, rape, and the abuse of children. He is sought after in cases involving particularly vulnerable victims and defendants.

Recent cases have included: the prosecution of the man dubbed the "British Fritzl", now serving an indeterminate custodial sentence for a 25 year regime of raping his two daughters to whom he had fathered nine children, seven of whom survive; and that of two brothers notoriously but wrongly described as the "Edlington boys" who, at the ages of ten and eleven, tortured other young boys. Other cases of particular interest have run from the prosecution in 2001 of the then Leeds United footballers Jonathan Woodgate and Lee Bowyer to the defence of a self-styled animal rights activist at the Central Criminal Court in 2006-7. His work in the case of R v Bates was highlighted in the Panorama programme dealing with the law and practice pertaining to disclosure in criminal cases. As a junior barrister he was led by Franz Muller QC in the representation of Billy Dunlop at the trials which resulted in his acquittal of the murder of Julie Hogg in 1989; that acquittal was quashed when he later confessed to the homicide and, as the first and only person to be indicted pursuant to the provisions of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 abolishing the common law rule against "double jeopardy", he was finally convicted of her murder in November 2006.

Some Reported Cases

• R v H [1998] Crim. App.R.(S) 229: junior counsel in defence of a battered woman who killed her husband.
• R v Ghafoor [2002] Crim.L.R. 739: approach to sentencing in the light of Article 7, ECHR
• R v Reed & Reed [2009] EWCA Crim. 2698: approach to expert evidence, focussing on that given before the Court of Appeal by professed experts in the field of DNA.

Other Recent Trials

• R v Jamal, Harrison & Sadiq: attempted murder by shooting.
• R v Lamb, Langley & Trafford: murder by joint enterprise.
• R v Wright & Mackenzie Seaton: the murder of a child of six years, relying on the provisions of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004.

His 2006-7 cases included,

• Operation Clyde: concerning historical abuse, both sexual and violent, of children in residential care.
• R v Ainsworth: R v Fletcher; R v Maguire; R v Moran; R v Patchett; and R v Walton; all homicides in the context of an intimate relationship.
• R v Clarkson: aged 16 at the time of the murder of a 15 year boy, he had turned 17 by the time he stood his trial alongside other teenagers.
• R v Davey: indicted on the rape of a young woman with Down's Syndrome.
• R v Raw: the murder of an infant of 13 months.
• R v Stephenson: who was alleged to have assisted the suicide of his wife.
• R v Taylor: "animal rights" activist indicted under ss.145 and 146 of the Serious Organized Crime and Police Act 2005.

Cases between 2000-2005 included,

• R v Boyd: teenager-on-teenager homicide.
• R v Gallant and Gilligan: the murder of Barrie Jackson, involving issues of anonymity for prosecution witnesses.
• R v Hakeem: conspiracy to kidnap.
• R v Land: indicted on serious sexual assaults, including rape, of successive female partners.
• A number of prosecutions arising out of the murder on Teesside of Kalvant Singh: several of the protagonists fled the jurisdiction, were extradited and tried at various times. One of the connected trials saw a defendant convicted of doing acts tending and intended to pervert the course of public justice and sentenced to a total term of 10 years imprisonment.

Professional Membership

• Criminal Bar Association, on the committee of which he served representing the North Eastern Circuit 2001-2004.
• North Eastern Circuit

Additional Information

• Foreign languages: French