John is a criminal law specialist whose practice is focussed upon serious and organised crime. He is a grade 4 prosecutor, a grade 4 member of the Serious Crime Group Panel and a member of the CPS Rape and Child Sexual Abuse list.

John’s cases typically involve a significant amount of telephone and surveillance evidence or significant amounts of financial documentation.

In recent years John’s practice has seen a bias toward large-scale drug operations, firearms offending, people trafficking/modern slavery and homicide

John prosecutes for local and regional Trading Standards Services, typically being engaged at an early, often pre-charge, stage of the proceedings to advise on the best strategy from the outset.

A natural advocate, John is forceful and persuasive in front of a jury and has an ability to cut straight to the point of a case.

CPS Panel appointments

General Crime Level 4
Serious Crime Level 4

Key cases & testimonials

Operation Carter (Ongoing) Leading junior for the Crown. An ‘Operation Venetic’ case arising out of the NCA infiltration of the EncroChat system – 47 defendants. See here.

Operation Horst (2023) Junior counsel for the Crown. Murder by a defendant already on life licence for 2 previous murders. Whole life order. See here.

R v Perkins (2023) Prosecuting alone. S18 on a police officer during the officer’s attempts to arrest the defendant’s brother. See here.

R v Kennedy (2023) Prosecuting alone. Prosecution of a Metropolitan Police ‘Met Operations’ officer for stalking. See here.

Operation Surrounding/Operation Latecoming (2023) Prosecuting alone. An ‘Operation Venetic’ case involving challenges to the integrity of the Op Venetic Material and the suggestion of a ‘fit-up’ by the NCA and the French Authorities. See here.

R v Holmes, et al (2022-23) Prosecuting alone. Possession of ‘slam guns’ by class A drug dealers. See here.

R v Hurns (2022) Prosecuting alone. Attempted murder. The defendant inveigled his way into his victim’s house then attempted to kill her; stamping and kicking her with steel toe capped boots.  Life sentence. See here.

Operation Flash (2020-22) Leading junior for the Crown. 20-handed drugs indictment. Multi-kilo class A and B supplies across the Midlands. See here.

Operation Ladyfly (2021-22) Prosecuting alone. 5 defendants. Class A drug-dealing gang who cuckooed and exploited a vulnerable male. Convictions for class A supply and Modern Slavery offences. See here.

Operation Cloak (2021) Prosecuting alone. Multi-kilo class A OCG who exploited a 15-year-old boy, forcing him to prepare and sell drugs.  Northamptonshire’s first successful prosecution of a drug dealing gang for Modern Slavery Act offences. See here.

Operation Jazzy (2021) Prosecuting alone. ‘Inside job’ robbery of a bank customer. D1, a bank employee, on learning of a customer’s arrangement to withdraw £38,000 in cash, arranged for D2 and D3 to rob him as he left the bank. See here.

Operation Undeserve (2021) Prosecuting alone. Offences of arranging/facilitating travel with a view to exploitation and forced/compulsory labour.

D brought his victim from Romania to the UK on the promise of good wages and a better life. Instead, the victim slept on a sofa, was not given enough food to eat and his wages were retained by the defendant. See here.

R v Patel and others [2021] EWCA Crim 231 Junior counsel for the Crown. In these conjoined appeals the Court of Appeal considered how the courts should approach sentencing of defendants whose sentences were adjourned, through no fault of their own, until after the commencement of ‘The release of prisoners (alteration of relevant proportion of sentence) order 2020′

Operation Maker (2020 – 2021) Leading Junior for the Crown. 10-defendant, multi-kilo drug dealing operation exposed by undercover officers.

R v Reynolds: [2021] EWCA Crim 10 Prosecuting alone. The Court of Appeal considered the propriety of a s45A MHA order as compared to a s37 order with s41 restrictions. See also here.

Operation Ripon (2020) Junior counsel for the Crown.  D1, assisted by D2, placed a tracker on his ex-wife’s car and monitored her movements for a year as they divorced.  Having been ordered to pay her £10,000 at the conclusion of the ancillary relief proceedings he lay in wait at her flat and shot her in the head as she returned home.

The case involved consideration and presentation of GPS data from both defendant’s phones (believed to be the first use of a ‘Geotime’ presentation in court), cell site data and data from the tracker. The case also involved the discovery of Gun Shot Residue on a jacket, analysis of that GSR and comparison of the GSR with that found on the body of the deceased.

Both defendants convicted of murder. See here.

Operation Tahiti (2020) Junior counsel for the Crown. 5 defendants. 1 defendant gave evidence for the Crown. Group of youths who lured a drug dealer to a meeting intending to rob him, then attacked him inflicting a fatal stab wound to the heart. See here.

Operation Radar Part 2 (2019-20) Leading junior for the Crown. Multi-kilo class A conspiracies between Sheffield, Lincolnshire and Essex.  Trial 2 of 3 anticipated trials combining a total of 28 defendants. See here.

Operation Update (2019) Junior counsel for the Crown. Murder of a rival drug dealer by a gang who forced their way into their victim’s home at night, armed with a knife, machete, baseball bat and BB gun in order to rob him of his drugs and money. See here.

Operation Quadruple (2019) Prosecuting alone. Northampton gang violence. 5 defendants travelled around Northampton armed with a machete looking for members of an opposing gang to attack. Unprovoked attack causing serious knife wounds to an unsuspecting and innocent victim. 1 defendant then joined in an entirely unprovoked slash to the face of a passer-by.

Operation Pledger (2019) Junior counsel for the Crown: Attempted murder by a prisoner of a fellow prisoner and prison officers in 3 separate prisons. The defendant called 2 psychiatrists who formed the opinion that he was legally insane at the time of the offences. The Crown’s psychiatrist formed the opinion that D was suffering from psychosis at the time of the offences, but was not insane within the meaning of the M’Naghten rules. The insanity defence was rejected and D was convicted of 3 attempted murders. See here

Operation Trent (2019) Junior counsel for the Crown. Multi-kilo class A conspiracies. Trial 1 of 3 anticipated trials combining a total of 25 defendants.

Operation Horseplay (2019) Leading junior for the Crown. A one-family Northamptonshire crime wave. See here.

Operation Radar (2019) Junior counsel for the Crown. Multi-kilo class A conspiracies between Sheffield, Lincolnshire and Essex.  Trial 1 of 3 anticipated trials combining a total of 28 defendants

Operation Fahrenheit (2019) Prosecuting alone. Large-scale, 5-handed conspiracy to attack cash machines with cutting equipment stolen from fire stations. 28 cash points targeted, ranging from the West Midlands to the West Country. See here.

Operation Ambion (2019) Prosecuting alone. Multi-kilo conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine. See here.

Operation Coyote (2018/19) Prosecuting alone. Multi-kilo conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine. See here.

Operation Doubrava (2018) Leading junior for the Crown. 11-handed people trafficking/modern slavery prosecution. Listed for 3 months. Derbyshire’s largest ever people trafficking investigation. The case involved a Joint Investigation Team with the Latvian police, established though Eurojust, and a significant number of vulnerable Latvian witnesses who gave evidence by video link from a Latvian court, or having been flown into the UK. Guilty pleas after 7 weeks of evidence. See here and here.

Operation Greyhound (2018) Leading junior for the Crown. 3 week trial. Discharge of a firearm during a car chase in a residential street in Birmingham, together with transfer of a firearm and class A drug offending. See here.

Operation Saracen (2018) Junior counsel for the Crown.  Large class A and B ‘county lines’ conspiracies.

Operation Moonshine (2018) Prosecuting alone.  Dark web/credit card conspiracy. Dark web bitcoin transactions used to obtain details of US and Canadian credit cards, which were then used to make purchases in the UK.

Operation Intruder (2017/2018) 1 trial as junior counsel for the Crown, 1 trial prosecuting alone.  A series of large-scale class A conspiracies.

Operation Nacreous (2017) Prosecuting alone. 3 week trial. Modern slavery and benefit fraud. See here.

Operation Action (2017) Prosecuting alone. 4 week trial. 350 fraudulent claims for almost £100,000 worth of ‘Delay Repay’ compensation from railway companies. See here.

Operation Static and Operation Limit (2016/2017) 2 trials as junior counsel for the Crown, 1 trial prosecuting alone. Transfer of handguns and a skorpion machine pistol into Leicester, along with class A drug offending. See here & here.

Operation Eased (2016) 1 trial as junior counsel for the Crown, 1 trial prosecuting alone. Supply of class A and B drugs and possession of a handgun. See here

Dunmore (2016) Prosecuting alone. Importation of class A and B drugs with a street value in excess of £14 million. See here.

Operation Starving (2015) Junior counsel for the Crown in a multi-faceted fraud investigated and brought to court by the NCA/OCD. Purchasing of credit card details online, fraudulent use of merchant facilities, interception of emails and diversion of bank transfer mandates. See here.

Operation Brimstone (2014) Prosecuting alone for Leicestershire Trading Standards Service. 6 week trial. £800,000 rogue trader fraud. See here.

 

His practice covers the whole spectrum of criminal law.Legal 500 2017
Clear, Succinct and admired by clients. Legal 500 2015 (Recommended Leading Junior - Crime - Midlands)
An excellent communicator who adopts a methodical approach in court. Legal 500 2014 (Recommended Leading Junior - Crime - Midlands)
He has dealt with numerous complex cases and has gained a reputation as one of the leading junior barristers on the Midland Circuit. Leicestershire Law Society (2013 Barrister of the year)

Further information

Memberships

Criminal Bar Association

Middle Temple

Midland Circuit