Eleanor De

Barrister

Eleanor has a busy practice defending in a broad range of criminal matters including serious violence, drugs and sexual offences, dishonesty, public order, and road traffic cases.

Eleanor has a particular interest and expertise in representing young people and vulnerable adults. She is skilled at identifying fitness to plead and effective participation issues and advising on the instruction of relevant experts. She has a keen interest in cases involving exploitation, modern slavery and gang violence and appears as assigned advocate in the Youth Court for unusually grave or difficult cases. Eleanor also has experience in the civil jurisdiction of the criminal courts, opposing applications for Football Banning Orders, Criminal Behaviour Orders, Stalking Protection Orders, Serious Crime Prevention Orders and Knife Crime Prevention Orders.

Background

Before coming to the Bar, Eleanor worked across strategic litigation, policy and research with organisations such as the Texas Defender Service, Reprieve and Revolving Doors Agency. This included assisting with death penalty pre-trial preparation and appeals in the USA, researching the impact of the UK Government’s policy on ‘Overseas Security and Justice Assistance’ (OSJA) and campaigning for policy changes to help end the ‘revolving door’ of crisis and crime. She has also volunteered as a caseworker with the Centre for Criminal Appeals (now APPEAL) and the Free Representation Unit, successfully representing clients at the First-tier Social Security Tribunal.

Qualifications and Awards

Bar Professional Training Course - City, University of London (2019)
Best in Category Award - Justis International Law and Technology Writing Competition (2019)
Inner Temple Major Scholarship (2018)
MSc Criminal Justice Policy – London School of Economics (2017)
BA (Hons) Law - Pembroke College, University of Cambridge (2016)

Publications

Janus-faced justice? The role of legal technology in the provision of access to justice, Legal Information Management Journal (2019) 19(1), 63-65
No Justice in the Capital?, Revolving Doors Agency (2019)
A literature review on severe and multiple disadvantage, Revolving Doors Agency (2018)
Tackling violence against women and girls: the PCCs playing a crucial role, Policing Insight (2018)

Memberships

Honourable Society of the Inner Temple
Criminal Bar Association
Howard League for Penal Reform
Young Legal Aid Lawyers
Women in Criminal Law

R v SO (2023) – Charged with two counts of breaching a non-molestation order and one count of stalking involving serious alarm and distress. Acquitted on all counts after trial.
R v DM (2023) – Led junior in a multi-defendant county lines drug conspiracy.
R v MA (2023) – Secured a 12-month suspended sentence for defendant who pleaded guilty to 6 counts of supplying Class A and B drugs.
R v AK (2023) – Conspiracy to commit fraud with value of more than £40,000, aggravated by vulnerability of elderly victims, where it was suggested that AK played significant role. Secured a 7-month suspended sentence.
R v DM (2023) – Following repeated applications for disclosure, prosecution offered no evidence on six-count indictment of thefts and criminal damage.
R v RF (2023) – RF, charged with racially aggravated public order offences, diverted to conditional caution on the day of trial in the Crown Court.
R v JS (2023) – Following guilty plea, sentence of 5 years 3 months for possession with intent to supply more than 150 kg of ketamine (street value of more than £4 million).
R v GE (2022) – A care-worker pleaded on the day of trial to defrauding an elderly patient of several thousands of pounds. This was in breach of a suspended sentence imposed for another serious dishonesty offence. Persuaded the court away from activating the existing suspended sentence and to impose a further suspended sentence.
R v LA (2022) – LA was charged with ABH in a domestic context. Bad character evidence of his previous convictions of violence against the same complainant was admitted. Acquitted after trial.
R v JB (2022) – JB pleaded guilty to a ‘third-strike’ dwelling burglary and previous convictions included 81 theft and kindred offences. Successfully argued that exceptional circumstances existed to justify departing from the mandatory minimum sentence and secured a suspended sentence.
R v LB (2022) – Successful submission of no case to answer on handling stolen goods.
R v AA (2022) – Secured a 3-month suspended sentence for a ‘second-striker’ for possession of an offensive weapon.
R v MD (2022) – MD was charged with forgery of insurance documents. Acquitted after trial.
R v RM (2022) – Following extensive written representations about the exploitation of RM, a youth, the CPS offered no evidence on PWITS Class A and possession of knife. RM was separately charged with robbery and the prosecution were persuaded to accept a plea to theft on the day of trial.
R v RG (2021) –Successful application to dismiss attempted s.18 GBH.
R v CD (2021) – CD was charged with knife offences and diverted from prosecution to receive a youth caution.