St John's Buildings

CrimeSport, Media and Entertainment Law

Dermot specialises in Criminal law. For the last 15 years his practice has principally comprised work in the Crown Court. He has vast experience of defending in cases involving serious violence, sexual offences and drugs.

Dermot has appeared in substantial cases as a leading junior.

He represented the first defendant in South Yorkshire’s most prominent child sexual exploitation trial in recent times (R V RAZAQ), a case which lasted 9 weeks and which raised most of the difficulties associated with the cross-examination of vulnerable child witnesses.

Dermot also represented the first defendant in the 2014 CSE trial of R v SPENCER and others, a trial which spanned 10 weeks and which gave rise to widespread national media interest. The latter case involved the use of intermediaries and child psychologists.

The majority of Dermot’s work in the Crown Court revolves around cases involving allegations of the most serious sexual violence.

Dermot read law at University College London and went on to obtain his LLM at the same university. Thereafter, he attended the Inns of Court School of Law on the Bar Vocational Course. He was called to the Bar by Gray’s Inn in 1993.