I am a Solicitor in the Crown Court Department.
I studied Master in Law (exempting) degree at Northumbria University and graduated in July 2019 with a 1st class degree. In September 2019, I began my Training Contract at Watson Woodhouse and qualified as a Solicitor in March 2021. I am both a Duty Solicitor and Accredited Police Station Representative.
I specialise in defending people accused of a crime and gained a wide degree of expertise across the criminal defence spectrum before narrowing the focus of my work towards drug offences and sexual offences. This has also led to me representing a very wide range of clients. I have expertise in representing members of our Armed Forces; whether that be at the Police Station or Court Martial. My experience dealing with serving members of the Forces has given me the opportunity to visit a number of foreign countries in which our troops are serving to work with them in theatre.
The casework I have chosen to focus on has brought me into contact with a large amount of Proceeds of Crime Act ‘POCA’ work. In this work, I have secured a number of good results for clients by reducing both the benefit figures and available amounts through the appropriate deployment of forensic accountants and our own in-house team. This work has also exposed me to defending ‘Minded to Bar’ applications made by the Disclosure and Barring Service. I have successfully made representations persuading the DBS not to include clients on Children and Adults Barred Lists.
Being accused of a criminal offence is often the most challenging time in my clients’ lives. I pride myself in being approachable and available to my clients at all times and endeavour to provide my clients with a personal and professional service, ensuring we work together to obtain the best possible result in their case.
Some of my recent cases include:-
- R v C – Teesside Crown Court – successfully defended a client accused of rape;
- R v D – Teesside Crown Court – secured the complete acquittal of a client accused of committing a sustained knife attack
- R v S – Lincoln Crown Court – successfully defended a client accused of murdering a family member;
- R v J – Derby Crown Court – defended a client involved in a conspiracy to import £165m of cocaine to a full acquittal
