Crime

• Crime
• Civil Litigation
• International
• Human Rights

9-12 Bell Yard has traditionally been regarded as a leading criminal specialist set of barristers' chambers, and criminal litigation remains the bedrock of our work. We have acted in some of the most serious and high-profile cases over the past decades. All of our members act in criminal cases, and we both prosecute and defend.

From murder and serious fraud to bag snatching or a closing time punch-up, our ethos remains the same – we give the same high standards of care and dedication however big or small the case.

9-12 Bell Yard has been ranked as a leading set for both general criminal law and criminal fraud in both Chambers UK and the Legal 500 for more than a decade. As a large and leading set of criminal specialists, we have a presence in many of the most serious and high-profile criminal trials up and down the country. Our barristers are instructed to defend by a range of solicitors' firms, whether high street or City, and both privately and publicly-funded. On the prosecution side, we are instructed by numerous prosecuting authorities, including the CPS, the FPS, the SFO, SOCA and major government departments. Our members are often briefed to provide advice from the earliest stages in an investigation. We also provide policy advice to various government institutions.

Members frequently appear in high-profile cases of murder, manslaughter and other cases involving serious violence, including the most serious sex crime. Chambers also has a pre-eminent reputation in cases involving major fraud and organised crime, offending involving financial markets, and corruption. Many such cases have an international dimension.

Members of 9-12 Bell Yard have defended in cases such as:

• Graff Diamond Robbery
• Lynette White Case - Police Officers' trial
• Blue Arrow fraud
• Maxwell brothers fraud
• Jubilee line fraud
• Microsoft fraud
• Wickes fraud
• London City Bond fraud
• Hatfield train disaster
• Baha Mousa Iraqi abuse trial
• Anthony Joseph murder trial
• Heathrow robbery

Our barristers have prosecuted many high-profile cases including:

• John Worboys - taxi driver, serial rape
• Neale James - murder of elderly mother
• George Champion Sithole - murder of 6 year old
• Chenery-Wickens - murder of wife
• Michael Lyons "guru" - rape and sexual offences
• Kenneth Noye murder trial
• Guildford Four police officers
• Iraqi Supergun affair
• Dennis Nilsen serial murder
• City Slickers share ramping

Barristers at 9-12 Bell Yard are often brought in at the appeal stage of proceedings, and have appeared in some of the most important and difficult criminal appeal cases of recent years. We also appear in overseas death row cases before the Privy Council.

Members regularly lecture in the UK and internationally on fraud and linked areas such as money laundering and confiscation and are authors of numerous practitioners' texts and articles on these and other topics.