Barristers

Appointments

Trustee for the Kalisher Scholarship Trust

Appointed to the CPS Advocate Panel at Level 3
Appointed as a specialist rape prosecutor

Attorney General's Unified List (B)

Practice Areas and Specialisations

General criminal law, principally fraud and white collar crime, sexual offences (particularly those involving children and other vulnerable people, whether as defendant or witness), drugs offences, Revenue work and local authority prosecutions.

Fraud and Customs work

Henrietta was appointed to the Attorney General's Unified List of Prosecuting Advocates (B List) and has considerable experience prosecuting for the RCPO, where she was seconded to conduct in-house advisory work in specialist Revenue cases during 2005-6 and more recently for the Fraud Prosecution Department of the CPS.

She is proficient in the detailed analysis and careful presentation required in fraud cases, marshalling tens of thousands of pages of evidence and dealing with the demands of the disclosure process in multi-handed cases.

Last year she and Alexandra Healy prosecuted a multi-million pound fraud based on the acquisition of property by the use of false Land Registry documents and forged wills (2009).

Henrietta also has substantial and long-standing experience of cases concerning Post Office counters frauds, and has a thorough understanding of the complex procedures that such cases frequently involve.

Sexual Offences

Henrietta has considerable and wide-ranging experience of conducting trials on allegations of rape and other serious sexual offences, from work-place rape to sexual activity with children. Her work frequently involves allegations of cruelty, child abduction and sexual abuse within the family (whether historic or recent) and cases where the accused is said to have been in a position of trust.

Henrietta specialises in cases involving vulnerable and child witnesses in need of "special measures" to assist them to give the best evidence they can in court. She is an accredited member of the Crown Prosecution Service's panel of specialist advocates in Rape cases. The same skills and understanding are brought to bear in defending vulnerable individuals who may, whether because of their age, learning difficulties or problems with their mental health, face very considerable challenges in going through the trial process and meeting a criminal charge.

Particular recent examples include:

. the alleged grooming and serious sexual exploitation of a boy with learning and speech and language difficulties, who gave evidence with the aid of an intermediary

. allegations of historic sado-masochistic sexual abuse by a father towards his stepdaughter

. a troubled 17-year-old boy accused of the rape of a 15-year-old girl who was said to have been semi-conscious and finally unconscious - through drink

. the alleged physical and emotional abuse of an autistic child by his stepfather

. alleged indecent assault by a hospital nurse on an 83-year-old patient

. the prosecution, following a 10-year investigation, of a serial rapist, convicted of offences upon eleven different women (as junior)

Public interest immunity applications involving local authorities and other third parties.

Frequently instructed to deal with sensitive third party material over which the local authority or Healthcare Trust asserts immunity from disclosure in the public interest, Henrietta has the knowledge and experience to deal with both of the demands of disclosure in the context of a criminal trial and the competing considerations of trust and confidentiality which the medical and/or care professionals involved seek to defend in these difficult cases that straddle the criminal and child protection spheres.

Cases brought by local authorities and specialist regulatory bodies

Henrietta is a key member of Chambers' specialist team of advocates instructed in local authority work, conducting criminal and quasi-criminal work both in the Crown and magistrates' courts. She has extensive experience of trials and contested civil matters brought under legislation relating to:

Food safety

Trading standards

Environmental protection and Nuisance

Education

Unlicensed video works and sex shops

Planning (breaches)

Licensing (breaches and appeals)

Benefit fraud

Telecommunications offences

Offences under the Health Act 2006.

Education and Qualifications