Ben Edwards

Tessa Donovan

YEAR OF CALL 2021

Education

2020 – 2021 Bar Transfer Test, BPP London
2015 – 2016 Diploma of Legal Practice, College of Law, Sydney, Australia
2012 – 2015 Juris Doctor [MA Law], University of Sydney, Australia
2008 – 2011 Bachelor of International and Global Studies, University of Sydney, Australia

Appointments

CPS Panel Advocate (Level 1)

Memberships

The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple
Young Legal Aid Lawyers
Young Fraud Lawyers Association
Women in Criminal Law

Overview

Tessa joined Chambers in October 2023 after successfully completing pupillage.

Tessa has a broad practice in general crime, prosecuting and defending in cases involving violence, drug-related crime, weapon possession, and sexual offences.

She has also prosecuted and defended in cases involving financial crime and POCA proceedings.

Prior to commencing pupillage, Tessa worked as a Lawyer at the Law Commission of England and Wales, leading the project which focused on reform of Part 2 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, known as the ‘Confiscation Regime’. The final report makes over 100 recommendations for reform. Tessa also contributed to the Law Commission’s Evidence in Sexual Offence Prosecutions and Sentencing projects, the latter of which led to the enactment of the Sentencing Act 2020.

Alongside her work at the Law Commission, Tessa assisted in the production of training materials for the United Nations on the subject of Confiscation and has written for the Criminal Law Review on the subject of Confiscation.

Tessa has also recently been responsible for providing updates to the 2023 edition of Blackstone’s Criminal Practice.

Before commencing at the Law Commission, Tessa was a practising solicitor in New South Wales, Australia. Having completed her training contract at a trade union, she was admitted as a solicitor to the Supreme Court of New South Wales in 2016. She subsequently worked for the NSW Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) until moving to the UK in late 2019. In her role at the ODPP, Tessa appeared in court on behalf of the Crown in administrative hearings, bail hearings, sentencing hearings and appeals. These cases involved drug offences, sex offences, other violent offences, thefts and frauds.

Publications

R v Saroya (Nadia) (Court of Appeal (Criminal Division)) [2022] Criminal Law Review 699

R v Andrewes (Jon) (UK Supreme Court) [2023] Criminal Law Review 84

Notable Cases

R v R (Southwark Crown Court, 2023) – Tessa was led by Neil Griffin in a 4 day contested confiscation hearing in which the defendant was facing a confiscation order of approximately £712,000. Over 3 days of evidence, they successfully convinced the Judge to reduce the figure to just over £410,000. Importantly, this would ordinarily carry a term of imprisonment in default of 5 years. However, they were also able to successfully convince the judge that the value of a restrained property, which would be realised by the Crown, should not be taken into account for the purposes of determining the defendant’s term of imprisonment in default. Instead, a term of imprisonment in default of 30 months was imposed.

R v O (Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court, 2023) – Tessa was instructed to represent a defendant in a case being prosecuted by the RSPCA. The defendant was charged with an offence of animal cruelty on the basis that he had failed to seek veterinary care for his cat who had unnecessarily suffered as a result. After successfully opposing an application to adduce evidence of the defendant’s bad character, the defendant was acquitted.

R v C (Reading Magistrates’ Court, 2023) – Tessa was instructed to represent a defendant in his trial at Reading Magistrates’ Court. The defendant was charged with assault by beating. Tessa successfully cross-examined the complainant pointing out a number of inconsistencies between her statement and her evidence and secured an acquittal.

R v M (Kingston Crown Court, 2023) – Tessa was instructed to represent a defendant in her committal for sentence. The defendant was convicted of a sophisticated fraud against her employer which she perpetrated over a period of 14 months; the total value of which was over £8000. After making comprehensive submissions in mitigation, Tessa secured a suspended sentence for the defendant.

R v H (Uxbridge Youth Court, 2023) – Tessa was instructed to represent a youth defendant in breach of bail proceedings. The defendant was on post-conviction bail for a section 18 offence. He was given an electronically tagged curfew and had been breached for several occasions when he had been late home. Tessa successfully argued that the defendant ought to be re-released on bail into the care of his parents rather than being remanded.

R v O-H (Willesden Youth Court, 2023) – Tessa was instructed to prosecute a youth defendant on behalf of the Local Authority in respect of alleged breaches of the defendant’s youth referral order contract. The court found the breaches proved.

R v B (St Albans Crown Court, 2023) – Tessa was instructed to prosecute an appeal against conviction and sentence in respect of an assault by beating. The defendant had been convicted in his absence in St Albans Magistrates’ Court in 2022. The defendant was again found guilty and the appeal quashed.

R v Y (Salisbury Crown Court, 2023) – Tessa was instructed to represent a defendant who had pleaded guilty to one count of possession with intent to supply class A drugs and one count of possession with intent to supply class B drugs. After lengthy submissions in mitigation, Tessa secured her client a suspended sentence which the Judge described as an ‘exceptional course taken in view of the mitigation’.

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