Alexander Milne QC

 

Alexander Milne is a leading criminal advocate and has particular expertise in fraud, public inquiries and international human rights matters. Alexander accepted an appointment as a Recorder of the Crown Court in 2007 and took silk in 2010.

Alexander started his career, following his call to the Bar in 1981, in the highly commercial and complex environment of the City of London marine insurance market. Alexander joined 18 Red Lion Court in 1987 and has been a criminal advocate for more than 20 years. He maintains his connections with the commercial world. He was recently appointed an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.

 

Throughout his career he has maintained a balance between prosecution and defence and has recently appeared in a number of leading public inquiries. 

 

 

Turks and Caicos Corruption Inquiry (2008 – 2009): Alexander was Senior Counsel to the Commission of Inquiry, headed by Sir Robin Auld, investigating corruption amongst current and former elected officials of the government of the Turks and Caicos Islands. The Auld report indentified and condemned significant corruption within the political establishment of the Turks and Caicos Islands. This led to the immediate suspension of the government and the re-instatement of direct rule from the UK. Criminal investigation of former politicians followed the publication of the report. http://ww.official-documents.gov.uk/document/hc0506/hc09/0971/0971_i.asp

and http://www.tci-inquiry.org/

 

Bloody Sunday Inquiry (2001-2005): Alexander represented the interest of the late Field Marshal Lord Carver and a number of the soldiers implicated in the shootings. http://www.bloody-sunday-inquiry.org.uk

 

In 2005 Alexander worked with the Independent Police Complaints Commission, investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of Christopher Alder in police custody. He was personally responsible for drafting the majority of the resulting report to the Home Secretary.

 

 

Alexander has significant experience of prosecuting and defending frauds. He has appeared in VAT and duty frauds and VAT Appeal Tribunal hearings on behalf of Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise. He has prosecuted for the Serious Fraud Office including, for instance, a multi-million pound property fraud in the North West of England.

 

Alexander recently represented Muhammad Asif (R v Asif & Butt), one of three Pakistani Test cricketers accused of corruption in connection with match-fixing during the tour of England in 2010. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15573463

 

Alexander is author of the 1st Supplement to the 3rd Edition of Arlidge and Parry on Fraud, (Sweet and Maxwell, March 2011), the leading practitioners’ text on the criminal fraud litigation.

 

 

Alexander has extensive experience in the field of Sexual Offences and has prosecuted and defended in rape cases. His cases have included technically and evidentially difficult sexual crimes including torture and child abuse. He is adept at using the latest technology to deliver evidence in often difficult circumstances, including the use of video-link technology to deploy the evidence of vulnerable victims. In recognition of his expertise he is authorised to sit as a Judge in serious sex cases.

 

Alexander is highly computer literate and is enthusiastic about utilising new technologies for the presentation of cases. Based on in his interest in technology he has developed a particular expertise in computer pornography cases and was responsible for the successful appeal in the leading case of R v Porter.

 

Alexander’s general criminal advocacy encompasses the whole range of crime from the very technical to the type of case reliant on pure advocacy. He has prosecuted for the Environmental Protection Agency in pollution and water-fouling. He has appeared in numerous cases of serious violence, including murder and attempted murder.

 

 

Throughout his career Alexander has travelled extensively in support of his involvement in international human rights law. He is very experienced in high-profile international cases in potentially hostile environments.

Since the 1980s Alexander has been regularly instructed by Amnesty International. He has represented Amnesty in Yugoslavia (now Macedonia), Grenada, Czechoslovakia and Kenya. These cases were often high profile: Vaclav Havel (later to become President) acted as his interpreter in Czechoslovakia.

 

He was a recognized defence barrister before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and appeared on behalf of a former prison guard from the Omarska camp, facing charges of Genocide.

 

Alexander has lectured at the City University and University of Westminster on Administrative Law and International Human Rights Law and was research assistant to Paul Sieghart in the preparation of the first edition of his book The International Law of Human Rights (Oxford University Press).

 

Alexander has a particular interest in forensic investigation and evidence, for which he is well known. In January 2011 he was interviewed by Police Oracle on Forensic Futures. Extracts of the resulting article can be found at: http://www.policeoracle.com/news/In-Depth-Part-1-Forensic-Futures_29772.html and the video interview is available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7ceKsJJZ9U

 

In 2010, Alexander was a panel member at the launch of the Centre for the Forensic Sciences as part of the Jill Dando Institute for Security and Crime Science at University College London. The panel was chaired by Nick Ross (BBC’s Crimewatch). The other panel members were Professor Philip Dawid (University of Cambridge); Simon Ford (BBC’s Rough Justice); Dr Ann Priston (President of the Forensic Science Society), and Gary Pugh (Director of Forensic Services, Metropolitan Police Service)