MELANIE SIMPSON

Practice

Specialising in criminal defence work, at first instance and on appeal. Melanie has appeared as leading junior, a led junior and junior alone in a wide range of cases, involving serious violence and organised crime including murder, rape, firearms, gang violence, rioting large scale drug importation and supply and money laundering.

Melanie has particular interest in the application of human rights and challenges the decisions of the criminal courts regularly at Appellate level.

Melanie Simpson is associated with the following areas of expertise:

Crime
Fraud & Financial Litigation

Cases

Notable cases

• R v Jones - Junior alone in the robbery of the "Graff Jewellers" in Bond Street where £40m of jewellery was taken in broad daylight and never recovered. Defendant acquitted.
• R v Williams & others – Police operation involving the large-scale purchase and distribution of firearms resulting from a one-year undercover police operation targeting the so-called “untouchables”
• R –v- C – Briefed in a case involving the supply of class A drugs which included the largest ever haul of MDMA ecstasy seized by the Metropolitan police.
• R –v- Ali & others - Led junior in the ‘Christmas Day’ attempted murder of a victim left paraplegic and sustained ‘horrific’ facial injuries.
• R -v- Ghafoor & others – Multiple defendant case involving a series of violent robberies targeting Class A drug dealers, the case involved complex issues of Public Interest Immunity.
• R-v- Mugisha & others – Case involved conflict between rival gangs resulting in multiple stabbings and involved the use of firearms.
• R –v- Beard & others – Led junior in a murder trial involving 9 defendants’ client was a 16 year-old girl.
• R –v-Patterson – Led junior in high profile case where the manager of a building construction site was tried for gross negligence manslaughter following the death of a 2 year-old girl. The case involved complex issues of building regulations.
• R –v- Oni & others– Junior counsel in trial involving 9 defendants, one of the defendants sustained a fractured skull and others sustained stab wounds, the case involved “cut throat” defences.
• R –v- McCook & others –Led Junior in a murder trial involving 10 defendants, the murder was a result of gang violence.
• R –v- Johnson & others – Junior counsel in trial involving 10 defendants charged with violent disorder and GBH resulting from conflict between different area code gangs, the incident left a 6-year-old child with brain damage.
• R –v- Griffiths – Junior counsel in trial of defendant tried for a series of cash-in-transit armed robberies.
• R v Uzner & another – Defended a police officer charged with perverting the course of justice resulting from a police investigation.
• R –v- Filip & others– Defended in a 5-handed aggravated burglary where the occupants of the property were tied up and subjected to serious violence.
• R-v- Prince & another - Gunpoint robbery of a retail outlet, the trial involved “cut throat” defences.
• R v Mitchell & others - Defended in large-scale conspiracy to defraud banks by using bank workers to target high value accounts.

Sexual Offences

• R v E – Junior counsel in trial involving 5 counts of anal rape of a 10-year-old girl by 16 year old boy, the case involved sensitive questioning of young witnesses.
• R-v- S – Defended Vicar charged with serious sexual assault on 7-year old girl
• R-v- R – Case involved 16 counts of sexual assault by a worker in care home.

Associated Work

• Melanie was seconded by the Bar Council to work in Jamaica assisting Jamaican Attorneys with capital murder trials in 2003.
• Lectured law students at UWI on ballistic evidence and conducting appeals and has been a visiting tutor at the College of Law.
• Conducts Pro-Bono death penalty and Privy Council work.

Professional Memberships

• Gray’s Inn
• Criminal Bar Association
• Bar Human Rights Committee
• Independent Jamaica Council for Human Rights

Contact

T. 020 7067 1500

E. msimpson@25bedfordrow.com