Dear Colleague,

Welcome to the fourth edition of our sexual offences bulletin, designed to help defence practitioners by providing some practical advice arising from our experience in sexual offences cases at trial and appeal.  

In this issue, Katy Thorne QC (who became Queen's Counsel on 26th February of this year) looks at the reasons why it may be helpful to consider instructing a defence expert at trial.  In the current climate of funding cuts and disclosure failings, it's even more important to be active defenders so as to ensure our clients' interests are protected robustly.  Annabel Timan identifies some of the lessons we have learned from the pilot scheme on s.28, which is now about to be rolled out nationally.  Kate O'Raghallaigh looks at some important new sentencing cases coming from the Court of Appeal which we hope will give you some guidance on early advice you may wish to give to clients, and David Rhodes looks at a recent case which demonstrates that judges sentencing in cases alleging historic offending may not have at the forefront of their mind any rehabilitation which may have some from the passage of time.  We also look at some unusual cases: Abigail Bright considers cases of images of child abuse that don't involve real children, and we profile a case involving Sarah Vine (a welcome new addition to Chambers) where she helped secure an acquittal in an unusual case involving a sex doll.  In a short video, Sarah also looks at the new guideline from the sentencing council which sets out the overarching principles which will be borne in mind in domestic abuse cases.  The guideline comes in to force on 24th May, so Sarah's summary may be a helpful introduction for you to this new approach.

Sarah's recruitment is one example of how the Sexual Offences team at Doughty Street Chambers is growing, meaning we have an increasing number of experts who specialise in these tricky and complex matters.  We are offering regular and bespoke training sessions at the offices of our solicitor colleagues, and so if you think we may be able to assist your firm in this way, please don't hesitate to email Maurice MacSweeney who will be happy to set something up with you.

I hope you find these articles useful, and we would welcome your feedback.

Best regards,

Sarah Elliott QC