Overview
Helen Longworth has a significant Crown Court practice including complex crime, serious fraud, money laundering, serious sexual offences and gang related drug trafficking.
Before her call to the Bar, Helen worked for 12 years as a policy advisor in the UK charity sector, working on anti-poverty, education and other social welfare issues. Helen has excellent communication and interpersonal skills, a notable work ethic and is fearlessness in advancing her cases. She is extremely competent, analytical and articulate, as well as showing her wisdom and compassion to a degree that allows her to deal properly and confidently with some of the most vulnerable people in the criminal justice system.
Helen teaches conference and advocacy skills on the MMU Bar Training Course. She is a member of the Northern Circuit Executive Committee, taking responsibility for Circuit communication and for the Pupil Marshalling programme.
Criminal
Helen’s practice is one with a good mixture of prosecution and defence work, both as the sole instructed advocate and as a led junior in several long running serious criminal cases including conspiracies to rob, to transfer firearms, to supply drugs and money laundering offences. She has a particular interest in youth justice and has conducted a number of legal arguments for serious offences heard in the youth court.
Helen is a CPS Panel Advocate (general crime – level 3), a specialist fraud prosecutor (level 3), a specialist POCA prosecutor (level 2) and a specialist serious crime prosecutor (level 2).
She exhibits particular aptitude in representing those who are vulnerable, such as struggling with addiction, mental health difficulties or because they are subject to domestic violence. Helen is assiduous in ensuring that her clients understand what is happening and how the process works. She has prosecuted in cases where the defendant has not been fit to face trial and has an excellent working knowledge of procedures on fitness to plead, intermediaries and is adept at advising and taking instructions in such cases.
Inquests & Public Inquiries
Helen worked for successfully a number of years after graduating as a policy advisor and advocate in the charity sector. She qualified as a barrister in 2016 and joined Chambers in 2017 following a pupillage under the supervision of Vanessa Thomson and Matthew Snarr.
Helen’s experience in policy work means that she brings to her work at the Bar a developed sense of teamwork and well-honed communication skills. Advising individuals from differing professional backgrounds in her former career, she easily explains complex issues simply to whoever she is working with.
Helen has an established and well thought of practice in traditional criminal work, regularly appearing in the Crown Court, in both prosecution and defence work. Helen is a category 2 prosecutor and is on the specialist panel for matters under the Proceeds of Crime Act, Fraud, and Serious Crime, showing that she is excellent at managing cases with significant amounts of evidence.
Helen is also a Specialist Regulatory Advocate. She has successfully run cases involving environmental protection, health and safety and food hygiene matters.
She brings to her other areas of practice the practical skills required in criminal advocacy and the sound tactical decision making which is an everyday feature of that work. She is an expert in witness handling and case analysis. The significant emphasis on oral advocacy in criminal work gives Helen an advantage in areas where other practitioners often have a background in predominantly paper advocacy.
Helen is a member of the Chambers Inquests Team and is actively developing her practice in this area. She has worked on cases for the family, prison deaths, and for the police. As a student, she took an active interest in the position of the family at inquest hearings, writing articles for the student body. She incorporated inquest work into her pupillage. Alongside her criminal work, Helen has built experience in civil personal injury claims, building a combination of skills that ideally suit her to inquest work.
Recent cases:
Inquest touching on the death of JP – representing the police in an inquest involving a death following a fall from a building.
Regulatory and Professional Discipline
Helen is a Specialist Regulatory Advocate. She has appeared in cases involving environmental protection, health and safety and food hygiene matters.
Family & Cross-Jurisdictional
Helen advised children’s services on the matters that cross the criminal and family courts, obtained material for disclosure as well as conducted an application to vary a Forced Marriage Order in the family courts.
Notable Cases
R v Frankel and Others (Operation Larkshot), junior prosecuting counsel, multi-million pound money laundering case – link 1, link 2.
R v Watson, defence counsel, firearms case with fitness to plead issues – link
R v Farid and Others (Operation Cap), junior defence counsel, conspiracy to rob – link
R v Godfrey and others (Operation Rivington), junior prosecuting counsel, conspiracy to transfer firearms – link
Associations
Criminal Bar Association
Education
Bar Professional Training Course, Manchester Metropolitan University (2016)
Graduate Diploma in Law, City University (2015)
BA (Hons) English, University of Wales, Swansea (2003)
Awards
Contribution to the Course Award, MMU, 2016
Dean’s Award – Highest Mark in Drafting, MMU, 2016
BPTC Scholarship, MMU, 2015
Baron Dr Ver Heyden de Lancey Prize, Middle Temple, 2016
Blackstone’s Entrance Exhibition, Middle Temple, 2016
Godfrey Heilpern KC Memorial Prize Scholarship, Middle Temple, 2015
Blackstone’s Entrance Exhibition, Middle Temple, 2015
Third Sector Young Thinker of the Year, runner up, 2009
