The 36 Group

36 Crime

Christopher Donnellan KC has extensive experience in prosecuting  and defending serious crime including murder, manslaughter, and death by driving. He has particular expertise in health and safety cases involving death in the workplace and transport industry. He has also prosecuted serious sexual offence cases including a country wide paedophile group.

Prosecuting on the Midlands and South Eastern Circuits he has presented complex cases to the jury involving  gunshot residue, DNA, mobile ‘phone and cell site data, and CCTV imagery. Recent cases included the attempted murder in Leicester of four victims chosen at random : the first a child mown down by a car, and others stabbed in the street:  an elderly man on his way to the shop,  a mother collecting her child after school, and a child standing on the pavement as his mother parked her car,   (R -v- Racitalal) with evidence pieced together from complex expert imagery comparison from CCTV.  Similar use of imagery from CCTV together with DNA and footprint evidence led to a conviction for murder (R -v- Jessop). He prosecuted the case of the murder of a 9 year child as she played in street, the  jury found that the defendant had done the act:(R -v- Skebas).

Defending, he recently secured the acquittal of murder (joint enterprise) of one of group of young men present when the victim was stabbed in the street in Oxford, successfully challenging the interpretation of the CCTV evidence as presented by the Crown. He secured the acquittal on a charge of murder (joint enterprise) of  a vulnerable man starved to death, receiving a determinate and lesser sentence for allowing the death (R -v- Rickard).  He also successfully argued for a stay of proceedings in a case involving injuries caused to a baby, not simply because of inordinate delay in bringing the case to trial but because of the delay having such a significant impact on her mental health.

With his experience of prosecuting a train driver following the Watford train crash in which one person died and others seriously injured he was invited to co-author the response of the Bar to the Corporate Manslaughter Bill, and gave evidence to the House of Commons Committee. He successfully secured the acquittal of a maintenance manager prosecuted over the death in the work place when a piece of machinery exploded. He defendant the owner of a transport company charged with manslaughter when one of the drivers was killed while transporting goods in breach of working time regulations involving tachograph evidence and cross examination of a sleep expert.  Prosecuting, he secured convictions on health and safety offences against a company director personally, and his company, for a death on a building site.

Called 1981; Inner Temple; Silk 2008. Recorder 2002 (Crown Court).

Areas of experience:

Homicide Health and Safety Financial Crime

English

Criminal Bar Association; Midland Circuit.

John Fisher School, Purley; Queen’s College, Oxford (1980 BA Hons jurisprudence).

Gardening, DIY, school governor (chair).