Cases

Murder of Kodjo Yenga: Together with Paul Phillips of chambers he represented the sixth defendant to be charged with this murder of a 16 year old boy in broad daylight – following an eight week trial the client was the only one to be acquitted of all charges. The case attracted considerable publicity as it was a broad daylight killing of a 16 year old by a gang know as MDP (Murder dem Pussies) aged 13 to 16.

Royal Blackmail: Represented Ian Strachan who was charged with the blackmail of a member of the Royal Family who was known throughout the trial as Witness A (and no he can’t tell you who he was!). He had recorded on his mobile telephone material both video and audio of an employee (witness D) making allegations of a sexual act (“blowjob”) between A and D, that A’s business was deceiving customers as to the origin of the goods and that A had taken cocaine. The legitimate selling such material to the media has blurred the line of criminality where the subject of the material can himself become involved in the purchase of it for money in order that it is not printed. The case revolved around the question of when a demand is a demand within the meaning of the act: the line is not immediately clear. This was a difficult case investigated by the anti-terrorist squad (Why?).

Gangland Killing: Represented Dean Smith at trial 2 years ago and again at the Court of Appeal (Alan MosesLJ, Oppenshaw J and Roberts HHJ) sitting at Woolwich for 4 days. The case revolved around the notorious gang known as the Johnson Crew membership of which was denied by the client notwithstanding the fact that he had it tattooed on his chest!). They were convicted of murder and three attempted murders of bouncers at a nightclub in Birmingham. The appeal involved issues of joint enterprise, propensity evidence (ie membership of the JC), directions on the route(s) to conviction and identification by police officers viewing CCTV video footage. On appeal against sentence the age of the defendant was specifically not allowed for resulting in a sentence of 30 years for a 19 year old. Judgement has been reserved.



Other notable cases include:
R v Lim (Grobbelaar - match fixing trial)
R v Aspin (Arms to Iran)
R v Geoff Knights (Gillian Taylforth's partner)
Football Association v Segers (alleged "bung")
Football Association v Burtenshaw (alleged "bung" with George Graham)
The "Arms to Liverpool" case
A "Super-grass" killing (professional assassination)
El Faisal, the Moslem imam accused of incitement to murder.
More recently he has been engaged to represent alleged gang-land killers in Ireland and Brian Brendon Wright the alleged race fixer and cocaine importer.

He has also undertaken Death Row cases from Jamaica pro bono.

Publications

He has made two series of "Nothing But the Truth" for Channel 4 in 1998 and 1999. They were studio based shows modelled on a court-room with judges (Paul Boateng MP and Ann Widdecombe MP), a jury made up from a cross section of members of the public and advocates arguing a moral rather than legal question.

He has made two series of "Crime Team" for Channel 4 in 2001 and 2002. Two celebrities were given the task of investigating murders which had taken place in the past in the UK. Filmed on location they had just three days to solve the crime using only the material the police had at the time. Jerome's job was to host the programme, narrate, question and cajole their findings and ultimately ensure they found the killer.

His most recent series was for ITV1 as co-host in the series “The People’s Court” where he was the judge in a daily part live show dealing with legal disputes brought by the various protagonists varying from boundary disputes and poor workmanship to indebtedness and work issues.

In addition he has contributed to various chat shows as a guest speaker, given interviews on news programmes and cameo roles as an expert on crime in other television documentaries and crime-related shows. More recently he had to abort a documentary on Van Hoogstraaten in Zimbabwe after being placed under house arrest in Harare.