Robert is 1996 Call and he has approaching three decades of experience at the Criminal Bar. His Practice is purely Criminal Defence. Robert has been instructed in a large number of serious crown court cases over the years including murder (sole counsel as well as two counsel), attempted murder, rape (including many historical), s.20, s.18, armed robbery, supply of Class A drugs (including large scale), firearms cases, high value frauds, money laundering, cases of death by dangerous and death by careless driving and many multi-handed ‘police operation’ cases.

Robert has been an Advocacy and Ethics Trainer for the College of Law and he is a registered Pupil Supervisor. He has an LLM in Criminology and the Criminal Justice System (‘Merit’ [Lond. 1994.]) Robert is a strong believer in Human Rights, trial by jury and free access to justice. Robert is a very experienced criminal defence advocate. He is known for his eloquent and persuasive advocacy skills and for ‘getting to the point’ by identifying the issues that really matter.

Some recent cases include: R v TH (Luton Crown Court), conspiracy to supply class A drugs, acquitted; R v GJ (Aylesbury Crown Court), rape, acquitted of all matters; R v EP (Luton Crown Court), s.18 ‘road rage’ acquitted of all matters; R v LS (Luton Crown Court), arson with intent to endanger life, acquitted of all matters; R v KL (Aylesbury Crown Court), s.18 knife attack, acquitted of all matters;  R v PW (Aylesbury Crown Court), historical rape of girl under 13 (and other allegations) acquitted of all matters, R v JS (Luton Crown Court), rape of girl under 13 (and other allegations) acquitted of all matters; R v L (Wood Green Crown Court), s.20 ‘glassing,’ acquitted of all matters.

Recent notable cases: Robert was counsel in an alleged murder of a 16 year old. Acquitted of murder. Robert was counsel in a widely publicised murder of an Oxford academic, author and antique dealer featuring the first edition of the Wind in the Willows worth £50,000. He represented two defendants in a multi-million pound secondary ticketing case . As leading counsel he represented a defendant in a case involving gang warfare with a background of drug dealing featuring a machine gun which was discharged injuring a member of the public. As leading counsel he represented a defendant accused of being in conspiracy concerning £5 million worth of cocaine.

Post case feedback includes: (Re L): ‘I cannot thank you enough for what you have done … Your advice and support throughout the very traumatising experience has been invaluable. You are one of the most fair minded and non-judgemental people I have ever had the pleasure to work with. It was a lesson in advocacy to watch you at work and in particular your closing speech was flawless …‘. (Re GJ): ‘… It has taken us a few weeks to try to gather our thoughts and to make some attempt to rebuild our lives after the last 14 months of trauma. … We just wanted to express our immense gratitude in a very small way and to say thank you so much for enabling us to live to fight another day. We will forever be in your debt.‘ (Re KL) ‘I wanted to say thank you for everything … Thank you for giving our grandson his life back.‘ (Re J) ‘We are grateful for your great professionalism … remarkable skills and humanity, always encouraging and carrying us along.’

Robert has appeared in the Court of Appeal over the years presenting appeals against sentence and conviction both in relation to his own cases and also in cases where he did not appear in the court below, ie. he was instructed to deal with the appeal. Robert’s approach on appeal has been well received in the Court of Appeal. Here are just some of the favourable comments arising out of the various cases he has conducted: ‘Against that background, a number of decisions of this court have been set out in the very helpful Grounds of Appeal and Advice on Appeal drafted by counsel.’ (Rossiter [2003] EWCA Crim 425.) ‘The judge in sentencing had to weigh these factors […] That exercise is one which has been admirably carried out by Mr English on the Appellant’s behalf this morning and for his arguments we are much indebted.’ (Meta [2004] EWCA Crim 2195.) ‘[Mr English’s] succinct submissions on behalf of the appellant.’ (Ahmed [2009] EWCA Crim 518.) ‘[We] are grateful [to Mr English] for his clear, succinct and forceful submissions […].’ (Kay [2009] EWCA Crim 1707.) ‘We are, as we say, indebted to Mr English for putting the defendant’s case […] with as much force as could properly be given to it.’ (Keown [2010] EWCA Crim 2385 [Instructed for appeal only.])

Public Access

Robert is qualified and registered with the Bar Council to enable him to take instructions directly from members of the public (without the need of involving a solicitor in the case) under the Bar Direct Public Access scheme. Not every case is suitable under Direct Public Access and Robert will provide advice in this regard at the outset.

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Robert undertakes both private and legal aid work. Re private work, that may be by fixed fee or hourly rate, depending on case and/or client preference. VAT registered: VAT No. 718814125.

Please contact for further details at:

re@claritychambers.org

Or:

admin@claritychambers.org

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Regulated by the Bar Standards Board [BSB]. Complaints procedure: to Robert English within 28 days of issue arising. If unresolved, to the Legal Ombudsman [LeO]: https://legalombudsman.org.uk and/or the BSB: https://barstandardsboard.org.uk. The BSB page has a Barristers’ Register link to look up any registered barrister.