Criminal Law
Noel Casey is an experienced and versatile practitioner in all areas of criminal law. Having developed a practice based more on defence work in serious cases, in recent years he has maintained an even balance between prosecuting and defending. He has a wide range of experience of trials involving murder, sexual assault, child abuse, serious violence, serious fraud, robbery, firearms and drug trafficking. He is a Grade 3 Advocate for the Crown Prosecution Service.
He regularly provides advice on grounds of appeal and has appeared in the Court of Appeal on numerous occasions. He routinely provides advice and opinion on all aspects of criminal cases, from culpability through evidential requirements to arguments on admissibility. (He has also advised the Crown on jurisdictional issues regarding a potential manslaughter in France.) He is moreover fully cognisant of issues regarding disclosure, public interest immunity and confiscation. A substantial part of Noel’s practice has involved cases regarding sexual assault and child abuse, and he has acquired significant expertise in trials involving child defendants and/or witnesses, vulnerable witnesses, and cross-examination via video-link.
Employment Law and Related Work
Noel started his career in a common law set of chambers. He drafted pleadings and advices on merits and quantum in PI and Employment cases. Much of his early experience of advocacy involved appearing at Employment Tribunals. He has normally but not exclusively appeared on behalf of employees, and has undertaken (as part of his original training) numerous pro-bono cases. More recently, he has returned to this area of work, by advising upon the merits in employment cases.
Since joining 18 Red Lion Court and developing a strong criminal practice, the emphasis of his skills has been upon jury advocacy and legal argument made orally. Work-related criminal cases which he has prosecuted recently include a pharmacist accused of workplace sexual offences. Noel has also prosecuted regulatory matters for the county of Essex, and has defended in cases of serious malfeasance while in public office.
Although a busy practitioner, in recent years he has invested time in extending his range of activity and qualifications, mainly in the field of international law. In particular, he has undertaken major projects:
Afghanistan:
In 2004, he spent three months in Afghanistan on a pro bono program, working in Kabul and Kandahar, building the country’s first team of public defenders (created under a new constitution and penal code) advising and mentoring the Afghan lawyers, attending court and visiting prisoners, as well as liaising with embassies, the UN and other international organisations.
LLM:
In 2007 and 2008, he took a sabbatical to attend the Benjamin J. Cardozo School of Law in New York City, where he obtained a Masters in Law (LLM) specialising in international and criminal law. As a member of the Human Rights Clinic he co-drafted a study paper for the UN International Expert on Minorities. The paper dealt with the use and manipulation of nationality and citizenship rights in Africa. Noel co-presented the paper at a conference of experts at the UN in Geneva.
On the back of the LLM, he took and passed the New York State Bar Exams.
Cases
Although he will happily provide on request a detailed summary of his principal cases of the last few years, notable cases have included:
- R v F****** 2011 Ipswich CC Historic sex abuse (false memory syndrome) Counsel for the Defence
- R v Brennan 2011 Reading CC Conspiracy to murder Leading counsel for the Defence
- R v Byatt 2010 Chelmsford CC Murder Junior counsel for the Prosecution
- R v Caskey 2010 Basildon CC Attempted Murder Junior counsel for the Defence
- R v Day 2010 Basildon CC and the Court of Appeal Perverting the course of justice (false allegation of rape) Counsel for the Prosecution
- R v Neathy 2010 Ipswich CC Familial male child rape Counsel for the Prosecution
- R v Dube 2009 Basildon CC Rape Counsel for the Defence
- R v Hemblade 2009 Snarebrook CC Malfeasance in public office (jury tampering) Counsel for the Defence
- R v O’Neill (2006, Basildon CC): Murder (junior counsel for defence)
- R v Sellars and ors (2006, Basildon CC): Murder (junior counsel the prosecution)
- R v Gosling (2005, Central Criminal Court): Murder (junior counsel for defence)
- R v Bailey (2005, Basildon CC): Murder (junior counsel the defence)
- R v Williamson (2005, Southend CC): Attempted Murder (counsel the defence)
- R v Battie (2004, Ipswich CC): Murder (junior counsel defence)
- R v Chambers (2004, Southend CC): Gang rape (junior counsel for prosecution)
- R v Ellis (2003, Basildon CC): Child rape (junior counsel for defence)
- R v Bigby (2003, Chelmsford CC): Murder (junior counsel for prosecution)
- R v Murphy (2003, Leicester CC): Male Rape in the military (junior counsel for defence)
- R v Knott (2002, Blackfriars CC): Conspiracy to defraud HM Treasury Solicitor (counsel for defence)
Reported cases:
- R v Rhett Howard [2002] EWCA Crim 218: determined how time on remand was to be counted.
- R v Richard Thompson [2005] Cr App R (S): set new guidelines for sentencing in child porn cases.
Publications and Lecturing
- CBA News, 11/05: New High Cost Fee Structures
- CBA News, 06/06: Hearsay & the Criminal Justice Act 2003
In 2010 Noel contributed to two police training video, advising how to deal - as a witness - with aggressive cross-examination. One was for the Detective Foundation Programme for Detective Constables and the other was for Counter Terrorism Specialists.
TV work
Legal advisor for “Judge John Deed” BBC TV
