2 Bedford Row

A number of members of chambers prosecute on behalf of the CPS, SFO, HSE and ORR and we regularly advise in cases of corporate and involuntary manslaughter as well as health and safety prosecutions.  Our experience as prosecutors ranges over all types of criminal conduct from the least to the most serious.

Chambers boasts two Senior Treasury Counsel who practise from chambers. Brian Altman Q.C. is currently First Senior Treasury Counsel heading the team of senior and junior Treasury Counsel at the Central Criminal Court. Richard Whittam Q.C. is also Senior Treasury Counsel.

Both are often engaged in prosecuting, usually at the Central Criminal Court, some of the most serious cases in the country. By way of example, Mr Altman has been involved in prosecuting a number of high-profile murders such as the 2002 abduction and murder of Amanda 'Milly' Dowler (R. v. Bellfield), as well as the case of R v Sweeney (the historic murder and dismemberment of two women over a 10 year period in the Netherlands and the UK); he has also prosecuted cases of terrorism such as R. v. Lewington (a white supremacist convicted of Terrorism Act and Explosive Substances Act offences), and he appears in appellate cases in the Court of Appeal as well as the Supreme Court, while Mr Whittam has been involved in terrorism cases of international significance such as Operation Overt (the plot to blow up several transatlantic passenger aircraft) and he advises the Security Services, Ministry of Defence and Treasury Solicitors. He recently responded to the CCRC reference to the Court of Appeal in R. v. George Davis (aka 'George Davis is innocent') and the damage to the Headingly Test Match pitch in 1975.

Richard Matthews Q.C. is standing counsel both to the Heath and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR). He has prosecuted many of the high-profile health and safety cases in recent years, including R. v. Total (UK) Ltd & Others (following the explosion and fire at the Buncefield Oil Terminal) and has been instructed in the leading appellate cases concerned with employers' and directors' criminal liability in both the Court of Appeal and the House of Lords, including R. v. Chargot [2008] UKHL 73; [2009] 2 All ER 645.