R v Amar Bostan [2018] EWCA Crime 494

In one of the first cases on sentencing in “revenge porn” Chris successfully argued that the sentence imposed had been manifestly excessive, and that the activation of a suspended sentence had been unlawful.

View news article

R v Phean Mayne [2021] EWCA Crim 737

Chris successfully argued in the Court of Appeal that the sentence imposed for breach of a Sexual Risk Order was inconsistent with the evidence, and with his sentencing remarks. The appellant’s sentence was reduced from 34 months to 18 months’ imprisonment.

View news article

R v A (Luton Crown Court)

Chris was leading prosecution counsel in a drugs case relying on the interaction of ANPR data, cell site, bank records, international money transfers and the use of false identities. Chris picked up the case overnight with his junior and got on top of the evidence quickly, securing a conviction.

R v R (Lewes Crown Court)

Chris was led in the prosecution of a former Church youth leader convicted of indecently assaulting two young men in the 1980s. The three-and-a-half week trial involved witnesses giving evidence from Australia, Spain and various UK courts.

View media report

R v W (Northampton Crown Court)

Chris’s client faced a conspiracy count, alleging theft of over £100,000 worth of vehicles and machinery across 19 incidents.

Chris worked hard to show the defendant could be linked to only a small part of the offending. He pressed for disclosure of phone material which the Crown said did not exist. Receiving it in the middle of the trial, Chris worked through the night to demonstrate an alibi defence, and to draft submissions of no case to answer, and of abuse of process.

As a result, the Crown offered no evidence on the conspiracy charges, accepting a plea from Chris’s client to a single incident of handling stolen goods.

View news article

R v C (Reading Crown Court)

Chris successfully prosecuted an armed robber who attacked a complainant with learning difficulties and threatened him with a weapon so that he would withdraw money from a cash machine and hand it over. The victim gave evidence with the assistance of an intermediary and Chris was praised by the judge for the sensitive way in which he handled questioning of a clearly vulnerable complainant.

R v J (Wolverhampton Crown Court)

Chris successfully defended a man accused of making threats to kill to his mother. Chris robustly cross-examined the complainant and another family member, drawing out the inconsistencies in the account they presented together, particularly when compared with detailed phone evidence supporting the defendant’s account. Notwithstanding the defendant’s previous conviction for a similar offence, the jury unanimously acquitted him.

London Borough of Ealing v O (Ealing Magistrates’ Court)

Chris secured the conviction of a defendant who had used a fake disabled person’s parking permit (“blue badge”). The defence challenged that s115 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 could not apply to the use of a blue badge and that charging as such amounts to an abuse of process. With a lack of any authority at all, Chris presented a detailed written and oral argument drawn from a number of sources and successfully defended the borough’s position.

London Borough of Barnet v S&S (Willesden Magistrates’ Court, Harrow Crown Court)

Chris secured the conviction of two parents who were in breach of a School Attendance Order. On appeal Chris produced two lengthy written arguments dealing with the admissibility of evidence from an expert Chris argued was not impartial and was incapable of giving independent expert evidence. Ultimately that evidence was withdrawn.