Matthew Scott

All areas of criminal law, particularly as a defence and appellate advocate.

Matthew welcomes instructions by direct access, including appeals and applications to vary or remove restrictive orders such as Sexual Offence Prevention Orders, ASBOs, Risk of Sexual Harm Orders etc.

He also has experience in professional disciplinary work, including medical and veterinary fitness to practise tribunals.

He is often instructed to give a “second opinion” advice in criminal appeals.

Selected Cases

R v. A [2020] EWCA Crim 849

Conviction for penetrative sexual abuse of 4 y.o. child quashed after court received fresh expert evidence.

R v MA [2019] EWCA Crim 178

Court of Appeal quashed conviction over judge’s summing up of bad character evidence in alleged case of marital rape. The appellant, who had served 2 years of a 15 year sentence, was cleared of all allegations after the prosecution offered no evidence at the retrial.

R v. MM & SJ [2019] EWCA Crim 1570

Historic allegations of child rape and cruelty. Court of Appeal gave leave to appeal and ruled that “expert” counselling evidence on the effects of child abuse was wrongly admitted as a result of errors by the original trial counsel, but nevertheless upheld conviction.

Attorney General's Reference (R v. L.) [2018] 1 Cr. App. R. (S.) 2

Court of Appeal refused Attorney-General’s attempt to increase sentence in S.18 stabbing case.

R v Gough [2015] EWCA Crim 1079

Right to appear naked in court “The Naked Rambler.” The first and so far only time an appellant has appeared naked in the Court of Appeal, albeit by video link. Unfortunately the right to appear naked in the Crown Court was not established, although the case was decided on the narrow basis that in Mr Gough’s particular case appearing naked would have breached the terms of his ASBO.

R v Xiong Xu [2007] EWCA Crim 3129

Leading case on sentences for cannabis cultivation.

R v Corcoran [2003] EWCA Crim 43

Murder of Horndean schoolgirl Helen Gorrie. Conviction quashed on appeal. Case remains unsolved.

R v. Patrick Ryan [2021] EWCA Crim 262

2013 conviction for sexual allegations against 2 sisters dating from the 1970s. Mr Ryan’s case was taken up by the miscarriage of justice charity APPEAL. The Court of Appeal quashed the convictions in 2021 and ordered a retrial. At the retrial the prosecution offered no evidence and not guilty verdicts were recorded on every count.

R v. Green [2025] EWCA Crim 923

2022 convictions for rape were quashed by the Court of Appeal as a result of misdirections by the trial judge on the issue of belief in consent. Other convictions were upheld. Mr Green was aged 90 at the time of his conviction and 93 at the time of his appeal. His sentence was reduced from 24 years to 12 years. The Court rejected arguments that the judge had failed to give a proper “Adams” direction on cross-admissibility, and held that although the judge had failed to give a proper direction on the status of judicial comments this did not in the particular circumstances of the case render the remaining convictions unsafe. An application to certify a point of law for consideration by the Supreme Court has been made. Led by Edward Henry KC.

R v Fowler [2025] EWCA Crim 586

The Court of Appeal ruled that Mr Fowler had been wrongly assessed as “dangerous” by the sentencing judge. As a result the finding of “dangerousness” was quashed and his extended 10 year sentence was replaced by an 8 year determinate sentence. Leave to appeal against the convictions was refused.