Practice Profile

Crime; Human Rights (test cases on Art. 3,5,6,7,8, & 9 ECHR);

Extradition: current cases include defending cyberterrorist ‘Pentagon computer hacker’ against the USA, drugs & money laundering conspiracies against Australia & Spain & war crimes against Croatia; murder and organised crime against Poland

Serious fraud; Extensive national practice defending drug traffickers, producers & suppliers & confiscations: See reported cases - Quayle 2005, Lehmann 2004, Stroud 2003, Taylor 2002 & Ham Art.8 test case for Liberty;Court of Appeal criminal appeals, CCRC & Strasbourg referrals; Caribbean Privy Council appeals incl. Clifton Shaw & Ors - fresh evidence Jamaican capital multiple murder; Blanchfield v AG of Trinidad & Tobago - Constitutional WW2 land claim;

Prisoners Rights: judicial reviews, parole board & disciplinary hearings for prisoners ; Civil actions against the police & inquests.

VOLUNTARY WORK
Represented Amnesty International as 'expert counsel on Trinidad and Tobago' and Jamaica Council for Human Rights before United Nations Human Rights Committee. Prepared reports for the UNHRC re: police, prisons and death penalty and addressed the Committee on the ICCPR prior to their examination of the AG and Commissioner of Prisons.
The Centre for Justice and International Law, Washington DC
Advocate for execution reprieves. IACHR Caribbean police and prison cases.
The Bar Caribbean Pro Bono Committee:
Formed the committee with the Bar Human Rights Committee with barristers who sponsored work in Jamaica to ensure continuity of the civil barristers sponsoring death penalty work on the ground. Criminal chambers now regularly send barristers to assist attorneys on capital trials.

Cases

Extradition
• R (on the application of Spain) v Bow Street Magistrates' Court & Sander & ors: The Times, September 19, 06, (2006) 156 N.L.J. 1440: Guideline case on abuse of process in extradition law following interlocutory JR of Magistrate’s disclosure order brought by Spain. Art.13 ECHR and application of EU law to extradition.
• Scuka v Governor of Brixton Prison: J.P. 2003, 167(13), 223; [2003] EWHC 544; 2003 WL 933499: Extradition & parallel successful asylum claim.
• Miklis v Deputy Prosecutor General of Lithuania: (2006) 4 All ER 808, The Independent, June 19 2006: Standard of proof and evidence for Art. 3 ECHR claim.
• Czech Republic v Milan Scuka: Extradition Law Handbook, Sambei and Jones OUP 2005: Triviality and discrimination defence for Czech Roma.

Judicial Review
• R (Abbasi) v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs [Court of Appeal] [2003] U.K.H.R.R. 76, E.H.R.L.R. 2003, 2, 222-229, Times Nov 8 2002: JR of inactivity of Foreign Office in protecting British citizens at Guantanamo Bay: MR criticized US Executive policy and US judgments re: absence of Habeas Corpus;
• R (on the application of Cleary) v Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court & (1) Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis (2) Secretary of State for the Home Department Times, September 12, 2006, [2007] 1 All E.R. 270, various reports & journals incl. Archbold: Successful art.6 & 8 challenge to absence of procedural & due process guidelines for Closure (eviction) Orders under the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003. MET & Home Office policies on disclosure & anonymous hearsay evidence overturned.
• R (Thompson) v Chief Constable of Northumbria Police (2001) 1 WLR 1342; (2001) 4 All ER 354. JR of deputy chief constable for excluding a solicitor's representative from police stations in the area. Duty Solicitor Scheme did not entitle a blanket exclusion direction.

Appeals
• R v Quayle & ors. (2005) 1 WLR 3642, (2006) 89 B.M.L.R. 169, Times, June 22, 2005, Archbold & various law journals: Test case on the ambit of defence of medical necessity & Art. 8 ECHR for medicinal cannabis use;
• Blanchfield & Ors v AG of Trinidad and Tobago (No.1 of 2002) UKPC. Private constitutional appeal reclaiming a large area of land from the Trinidadian Gvt. that the British Gvt. seized from farmers and leased to the US military in WW2 for the war effort;
• R v Taylor (Paul Simon) [Court of Appeal Criminal Division] Times, 15/11/2001; (2002) Crim LR 314 & Archbold: Article 9 test case for Rastafarian prosecuted for use of cannabis at his temple;
• Clifton Shaw, Titus Henry, Morris Boreland, Donovan Mullings & Junior Wright v. R (No.53 of 2002) UKPC. Jamaican capital multiple murder appeal re: fresh & undisclosed eyewitness evidence found in Jamaica and in the UK whilst a student;
• R v Scorgie: Lawtel 27/03/2003, [2003] EWCA Crim 1097: State disabled Defendant - Abuse of process jurisdiction - causation of unfitness to plead - Article 3;
• R v Stroud (John Richard) 147 S.J. 1152, C.A. (02/10/2003); Criminal Law Week, Lawtel 2/10/03; 2003 WL 22656433: Successful challenge re: Ambit of suspended sentences - MS sufferer - cannabis factory;
• R. v Stroud (John Richard) (No.1) [2004] EWCA Crim 1048 2004 WL 1060586: Successful challenge to methodology for determining benefit in confiscation orders;
• R. v Stroud (John Richard) (No.2) [2005] EWCA Crim 161 2005 WL 636047: Successful application to correct the Court of Appeal’s 1st judgment re: methodology for determining confiscation orders;
• R v Lehmann (Richard John) Lawtel Aug 2004; EWCA Crim 2174; 2004 WL 1808924: Guideline re: Sentencing tariff for cannabis growers;
• R v Adeloye (Tunde) [2005] EWCA Crim 2969 2005 WL 3126608: Abuse of process - non-disclosure;
• R v Brand (Christopher Stuart) Probat. J. 2003, 50(3), 321 [2003] EWCA Crim 884 2003 WL 21162448: Drug Treatment & Testing Orders, Suitability – Burglary - Custodial sentences - Drug addiction;
• R. v Gilpin (Paul Telford) 2004 WL 2945252, [2004] EWCA Crim 2351: Referral on appeal re: cannabis;
• R. v McCarthy 2004 WL 3022238 [2004] EWCA Crim 3175: Sentencing tariff for heroin conspiracy.

• Crown Court: R v Ham (July 2001): discussed in Rudi Fortson, Misuse of Drugs, 4th Ed. 2002. Article 8 privacy test case for Liberty re: prosecutions for possession of personal quantity of cannabis.

Publications

• The Times law pages: death penalty in Jamaica; The London Advocate: British Government’s role in the legality of detentions in Guantanamo Bay, Defences for drugs trials; The CBA Newsletter, Counsel.
• Co-author of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch publications on the death penalty, police and prisons in Jamaica.
• Freelance journalism for all English national daily broadsheets and tabloids including the front page of The Guardian and The Financial Times; Filmed footage of police violence at a NUS demo for the BBC 9 o clock News (freelance);