Tom has practised almost entirely in Criminal Law throughout his career. In his early years at the bar, Tom undertook some housing and licensing cases and represented indeterminate sentence and life prisoners before parole boards.

During his time at 2 Kings Bench Walk, from 2003 – 2009, Tom established a Crown Court practice and also acted as led-junior in several large drug and fraud cases.

Tom joined the CPS in 2009 in the role of ‘Crown Advocate’.  For all his time at the CPS he managed a heavy caseload of Crown Court work.  During the Covid pandemic, Tom provided charging advice to the RASSO unit and was recognized with a CPS Reward by the Wessex RASSO Management Team for the assistance he gave.

Tom is a grade 3 prosecutor, but has also undertaken a large number of grade 4 cases over the years acting as sole junior.  These have included multi-complainant rape allegations, large-scale burglary and drugs conspiracies, and several cases of attempted murder.  Tom has prosecuted many driving fatality cases and successfully prosecuted Hampshire’s first ‘death by careless driving’ trial.

Tom has also acted as led-junior in several cases during his time at the CPS. He has been led at trial in four murder cases in the last 12 years, one burglary conspiracy and two drugs conspiracies that included serious ancillary offences (kidnap and – in one instance – rape). Alongside these cases Tom continuously managed a significant caseload of other criminal work, with a heavy emphasis on RASSO cases, which has represented the majority of his workload in recent years.

Notable cases

R v White and Smith (Bournemouth Crown Court 2023)

The case involved a vulnerable street homeless woman who alleged kidnap and modern slavery offences against the defendants.  It involved a very large volume of apparently undermining unused material and the credibility of the complainant was a central feature of the case.  The defendants were convicted of kidnap.

R v Blannin (Bournemouth Crown Court 2022)

This was a non-recent sexual abuse allegation made by two adult sisters against their former stepfather.  The case involved a number of allegations over several years against a complicated factual background.  He successfully prosecuted the case against a privately instructed KC.

R v Leon MILLER (Bournemouth Crown Court 2022)

This was a sadistic and violent rape perpetrated by a young man who was subsequently found to be a dangerous offender.  He had victimized and mutilated his teenage girlfriend in the course of their brief relationship.  Tom took the case over for the retrial after the first jury were unable to reach a verdict, and secured conviction on the rape.

R v Tracy (Winchester Crown Court 2022)

Tom acted as sole junior for The Crown, taking the case over at a late stage when trial counsel had become unavailable.  The CPS had sought to instruct a KC, but there had been no availability.  Tom acted as lone junior against two juniors (the defence leader cited the case in his subsequent KC application].  This was a non-recent allegation from a complainant who had previously made complaints against several other family members.  There was a large volume of unused material. The investigation also unearthed hundreds of pages of lately discovered NHS and other records on day 1 of the trial (provided following his obtaining witness summonses from the Trial Judge).  Tom successfully resisted the extensive abuse of process applications before the defendant was acquitted by the jury.

R v RICE (Bournemouth Crown Court 2021)

Sexual abuse by a trusted family man on his daughter’s best friend, a troubled young teenager.  The abuse spanned several years and was partially witnessed by the defendant’s daughter, who was initially hostile to the allegations, but who then became a witness for the Prosecution.  Tom made the difficult decision to rely on the somewhat two-edged evidence of the daughter, which was pivotal in securing the convictions.

R v Gracey (Winchester Crown Court 2021)

Instructed alone in this attempted murder case in which the defendant armed himself with two kitchen knives and attacked a police officer who had attended his address to help facilitate a mental health assessment .  Detailed psychiatric reports confirmed that he was suffering with a disease of the mind to an extent that negated the mental element of the offence.

R v Brandford (Portsmouth Crown Court 2020)

Tom was led in this factually nuanced and document-heavy murder case.  The defendant pretended to have discovered the body of his slain fiancée, and embarked on a concerted deception in the hours after her murder to create the appearance of a doting lover (and then grieving partner) of the victim.  His elaborate lies were disproved by a very detailed examination of his phone and GPS activity.

R v Thomas (Winchester Crown Court 2017)

Instructed as led junior for the Crown, this was another prominent murder, in which an embittered and possessive ex-lover attacked and killed his victim at her workplace.  The case featured a large volume of detailed scientific accident which the Crown used to controvert the defence of accident.

R v Chudley (Salisbury Crown Court 2013)

Instructed as led junior for the Crown, this was a high-profile murder case in which a disaffected litigant to a protracted dispute over a building contract had gone to the offices of his opponent’s solicitor (whom he had come to dislike) and shot the unfortunate lawyer at his desk.  Tom successfully resisted the attempted appeal from sentence lodged by the defendant.

R v Penrose and Nixon (Winchester Crown Court 2012)

Acting as sole junior for the Crown, this was a drugs conspiracy in which the bulk of the case turned on the analysis and presentation of a large volume of telephone billing and cell-site evidence.

R v Haylock (Winchester Crown Court 2012)

Instructed as led junior for The Crown, this was an allegation of murder arising from a stabbing that took place after an extended drinking session amongst a group of semi-itinerant drinkers.  The case was complicated by the absence of (sober) reliable witnesses to the night’s events.

R v Burgess (Swindon Crown Court 2012)

Acting as sole junior for the Crown, this was a complicated allegation of rape.  The alleged victim died on the eve of trial and there was extensive legal argument as to the admissibility of her video-recorded testimony.  There were also several hundred pages of medical and social-services records to consider for disclosure and a complicated body of scientific evidence.

R v Burgos (Southampton Crown Court 2011)

Instructed as sole junior for the Crown, this was a case involving two complainants each alleging rape on the part of the defendant.  Tom successfully applied to join the matters (the second allegation having arisen only days before the original trial date).  The case also involved an allegation of drugs supply and involved detailed scientific evidence.

R v Harper; R v Dyson (Winchester Crown Court 2010)

Instructed as led junior in the trials of two very senior police officers who were accused of misconduct in public office arising from their alleged manipulation of provisions to avoid road traffic offences.

R v Saloom and Saloom (Bristol Crown Court 2009)

Instructed as led junior for the Crown in a case in which a husband and wife were said to have defrauded a number of financial institutions by securing credit by deception and then laundering the money, manipulating the organizations’ processes and disguising their own identities to avoid the recovery of the funds.

R v Bowers and Others (Winchester Crown Court 2006)

Instructed as led junior for the defence of a man accused of being involved in a large-scale conspiracy to defraud elderly homeowners of large sums of money for wholly unnecessary ground works. His client was the only party (of the five) to be acquitted.

R v Snober and Others (Wood Green Crown Court 2004)

Instructed as led junior for the defence in the case of a bank employee accused of having accessed and shared security information as part of a sophisticated conspiracy to attack the accounts of high net-worth individuals (including the comedian / actor Ricky Gervais).  He successfully defended his client and helped secure acquittals on all counts.