Crime News

3PB Criminal barrister Thomas Acworth represented a defendant with a long history of mental instability, who threatened his father with a knife at the family home, caused over £25,000 worth of damage to his father’s property and threatened to carry out an acid attack on a friend’s sister. Read more about Thomas here. For more information about the case, please click here.

3PB Barrister Nicholas Cotter has successfully demonstrated before Lincoln Crown Court that his client was not responsible for causing the actual deaths of three residents arising from a breach of Health and Safety (non-employees) in a care home. The Care Home had on advice admitted security and risk assessment failures linked to its care of the three residents and was fined £70,000.

3PB's highly regarded crime practice has started the new year on a positive note by welcoming highly experienced criminal advocate Elisabeth Bussey-Jones to Chambers. Elisabeth undertakes cases which range from murder, large scale drug operations, multi-handed fraud and international money laundering cases, and cases of historic serious sexual offences, violence and gun crimes. She has been a Grade 4 prosecutor since 2007 and is on the Rape and Serious Sexual Offences Panel for the Western and...

3PB crime group barrister Miss Berenice Mulvanny has successfully defended a man accused of kidnap and sexual assault in Southampton Crown Court. The case revolved around the allegation that Eric Williams posed as a taxi driver outside a Southampton before touching his intoxicated victim in his car in the early hours of July 30. However, after nearly six hours, a jury found him not guilty of kidnap and sexual assault. Read press coverage from the...

Criminal barristers Thomas Evans, Graham Gilbert and Thomas Acworth bring you the latest edition of Criminal News in Brief. The Supreme Court Assistance by Defendants: When considering whether to refer a sentence made under s.73 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 back to a court: the interests of justice do not automatically require a prosecutor to make the referral if there has been a change of circumstances and there were no countervailing...

Criminal Barrister Thomas Evans analyses Ivey v Genting Casinos (UK) Ltd t/a Crockfords [2017] UKSC67 and the test for dishonesty applied in criminal courts. To read Thomas' analysis, please click here.    

3PB Criminal Barrister Graham Gilbert examines the Liam Allen case and the duty to pursue all reasonable lines of enquiry. To read Graham's analysis, please click here.

Gemma White was instructed to prosecute in a multi-handed drugs conspiracy which arose from Operation Operative involving a complex investigation run by a major crime team. The conspiracy involved an estimated four million pounds worth of import grade cocaine . HHJ Rowland commented on Gemma’s “extremely helpful and and comprehensive sentencing note” when imposing a total sentence of 24 and a half years. Jodie Mittell represented the first defendant, who was said by the Crown...

Berenice Mulvanny defends in £200,000 arson case at Winchester Crown Court. Edward Beavis, a man with considerable mental health vulnerabilities, pleaded guilty to setting fire to a temporary school building acting as two classrooms at Avenue Primary School in Warminster in January 2017. He was sentenced to a total of 3 and a half years in prison and avoided an extended sentence. Read the article on BBC news here.

Adam Feest QC and Jodie Mittell represented Lucasz Jarosz who was charged with the attempted murder of a 13 year old school girl. The case had a tragic background as the offence was committed on the day when the defendant’s wife had committed suicide. He then drove his car deliberately towards a railway bridge in an attempt to kill both himself and the girl. When imposing a sentence of 8 years, HHJ Forster QC accepted...

Back in August, Graham Gilbert wrote a short piece about Ms Lavinia Woodward, the Oxford medical student who has gained an unfortunate notoriety following her conviction for stabbing her then-boyfriend in the leg with a bread knife. In part, her “fame” arose because HHJ Pringle, QC, adjourned sentencing until 25th September and indicated that he may see fit to impose a suspended sentence. On 25th September, he did just that, and so it seems to...

Jane Rowley was Lead Defence Counsel for one of 5 men accused of trafficking for sexual exploitation, sexual activity with a child, conspiracy to facilitate the prostitution of children and the supply of drugs, in R v Asad and others (Operation Wren) Newcastle Crown Court 2017. The trial arose as a result of Operation Sanctuary/Wren which was one of the largest police investigations into the sexual exploitation of vulnerable girls/women ever mounted in the UK. The...