Helen Jones

Defence

Helen has a wide-ranging defence practice and has represented individuals charged with the full spectrum of criminal offences including serious violence, sexual assault, dishonesty, supply of drugs and possession of weapons.

Helen appears as both a led junior and a junior alone. She has recently appeared as junior counsel in an attempted murder at Basildon Crown Court (R v R and H).

In addition to appearing in the Crown Court, Helen also appears in the Magistrates’ Court for individuals charged with road traffic offences, including dangerous driving, careless driving, excess alcohol and speeding. She seeks the best possible resolutions for her clients, which has included drafting written representations to the Crown, resulting in discontinuance of all charges. Helen has made successful wasted costs applications, and advanced exceptional hardship arguments that have resulted in the retention of clients’ driving licences. She has also successfully appealed decisions to the Crown Court.

Helen has acted under Certificates for Counsel in unusually grave or difficult matters, such as in the case of AF at Medway Magistrates’ Court (January 2016). AF was charged with four offences of sexual assault, and had previously served a substantial custodial sentence for other allegations of sexual assault. Helen sensitively cross-examined the complainant, who suffered with mental health difficulties, as well as another Prosecution witness. She subsequently made a successful half time submission on all four charges.

Helen has defended serving prisoners facing adjudications and has also appeared before a Court Martial on behalf of an Army Officer.

Recent Cases (acting as junior alone)

• R v MA (2016): Successful defence of a female alleged to have organised an ‘acid attack’ (read more)
• R v CG (2016): Secured the acquittal of a young man charged with a multi-handed affray at Kingston Crown Court, having argued he was acting in self-defence.
• R v CS (2016): Appeared on behalf of a man accused of possession of articles for use in fraud (card skimming devices). Prosecution offered no evidence following representations and the judge’s comments at half time.
• R v TP (2016): Represented a man at trial in a large conspiracy to burgle 45 domestic properties at Ipswich Crown Court.
• R v SH (2016): Crown offered no evidence against client on first day of trial for forgery after written and oral representations were made at Woolwich Crown Court.
• R v RS (2016): Appeared for client at his appeal at Maidstone Crown Court, after he had been sentenced to an 8 month DTO for ABH at the Youth Court. The judge and magistrates allowed the appeal and replaced the DTO with a referral order.
• R v HK (2016): Represented a teenage girl of good character alleged to have stamped on the head of an adult male at a house party. Successful on appeal to the Crown Court.
• R v HS (2016): Instructed to represent a young man who had pleaded guilty to seven counts of supply/being concerned in the supply of class A drugs, as part of a serious large scale operation.
• R v IO (2016): Client charged with handling stolen goods. Persuaded the Crown to accept lesser pleas and following mitigation, the judge at Woolwich Crown Court sentenced to an absolute discharge, describing her decision as an ‘extremely unique and unusual course’
• R v MC (2015): Secured the acquittal of a man charged with sexual assault at Basildon Crown Court
• R v NM (2015): Persuaded the judge to suspend the custodial sentence for a defendant charged with perverting the course of justice and possession of criminal property at Snaresbrook Crown Court

Prosecution

Helen is a Level 2 CPS prosecutor. She conducts trials, appeals and sentencing hearings in the Crown Court and Magistrates’ Court. Helen is regularly instructed by the Crown Prosecution Service, as well as other prosecuting agencies such as the National Probation Service and Transport for London.

Helen has prosecuted serious matters as a junior alone such as grievous bodily harm, possession with intent to supply class A drugs, possession of weapons and dishonesty offences. Recent examples include the case of M, who faced counts of attempted section 18 GBH by driving his vehicle at pedestrians, and the two-handed case of RM and SM, which involved a fifty-count burglary indictment. She is frequently instructed to provide written advice.

Helen has also appeared for the Prosecution as a led junior. The CPS Essex RASSO Unit instructed Helen for a three-week trial at Basildon Crown Court in November and December 2015, led by Allan Compton, to prosecute a retired psychiatric nurse (CB) for historic sex offences.

Due to the nature of the allegations and the number of complainants involved, there was a vast amount of unused material. Helen gained invaluable experience in applying the disclosure test to many files of medical and psychiatric records, an exercise undertaken with care. CB was convicted unanimously on all counts and received a sentence of 14 years and 6 months’ imprisonment (read media coverage here)

Financial Services

Helen has appeared on behalf of clients charged with money laundering and fraud.

In August 2014, instructed by Bark & Co and led by Peter Griffiths QC, Helen represented the head of a Welsh charity, facing allegations in relation to fraudulent use of the charity’s funds at Swansea Crown Court. Their client was acquitted of two counts and the Crown decided against a retrial in relation to the third (read media coverage here).

Helen has represented several employees charged with dishonesty offences, such as RP at Peterborough Crown Court, instructed by Simon Caltagirone of Blackfords LLP. (read media coverage here) The Crown decided against pursuing a second count against her client.

Helen has also been instructed in confiscation proceedings on behalf of clients involved in fraudulent activity.

Helen has experience in large disclosure reviews and in Summer 2015 assisted a City firm, who were advising an international company in relation to a cartel investigation.