Homicide

The Six Pump Court Criminal Team has a wealth of experience in the area of homicide, its members having been involved in some of the most notorious cases of murder, manslaughter and attempted murder of recent times.

The Team prosecutes and defends, offering expert advice and representation in the context of the most sensitive, high profile and demanding of cases.

For many years, its members have regularly received instructions as Silks, Leading Juniors and led Juniors. Their level of expertise is unsurpassed and covers all areas of relevance to cases of homicide including self-defence, diminished responsibility, loss of control, joint enterprise, ballistics, pathology and neuropathology, blood spatter, toxicology and phone/cell-site evidence.

Murder/Attempted Murder

Recent cases of note include:

the Sikh “Honeypot” killing (Mundill and others), where the defendant was acquitted of murder;
the Somali contract/gang double execution (Awale);
the case of Stephen Farrow (the vicar and teacher double murder);
the case of Ivan Esack (the ex-detective tried for murdering his wife in the hairdresser’s salon she ran);
one of the leading authorities on joint enterprise (Horlock, Saunders, Service and Lees);
two cases of ‘disembowelment honour killing’ (Matthews and Matharu);
the case of Hammond (which involved the abuse and savage killing of a baby by its step-father);
the gangland trial of Kiddle and others (the ‘Innocent’ killing in Woolwich), where the defendant was acquitted of murder;
Roberts and others (the ‘Victoria Tube Station’ murder, where Roberts was acquitted of murder and which set the bar for joint enterprise in gang murder);
the gangland trial of Parkinson and others (the Reece James killing in Bournemouth), where the defendant was acquitted of murder;
the cases of Hodge, Presley and White, all ‘stabbings’ and all involving acquittal of murder.
Parsons, which has joined the list of authorities on ‘Coutts alternative murder/manslaughter verdicts’;

Manslaughter

Aside from the more orthodox cases of manslaughter, for instance the nationally reported cases of Bristow and others (the householder killed during a burglary) and Webster (the man who died as a result of a friend’s prank), the Team has real expertise in the more discrete are of gross-negligence/corporate manslaughter. Perhaps most notable is the seminal maritime case of Hubble. Michael Hubble was the Officer of the Watch charged with the manslaughter by gross negligence of three young men whose yacht the Crown alleged had been mown down in the Solent by the P & O ferry, the Pride of Bilbao. Apart from giving rise to complex issues of maritime law, hydrodynamics and body drift, the case also involved very significant issues of personal/corporate responsibility in the context of gross negligence manslaughter. Michael Hubble was acquitted on all counts he faced. Another such case was Willoughby, now an authority on the relationship between unlawful act and gross negligence manslaughter.