Overview
Phil was called to the Bar in 2014, but his legal career began in 2003 when he joined one of Manchester’s leading specialist criminal law practices. He would go on to spend more than a decade climbing the ladder as a solicitor, becoming one of the most widely-recognised and well-respected higher court advocates on Circuit.
His ability was clear from the very start. In a letter appointing him as a duty solicitor at the age of just 23, the Dean of the University of Cardiff Law School described the course assessors as being “unanimously of the view that he is one of the most talented young solicitors we have ever had qualify through the scheme”.
In 2014 Phil was approached with the offer to join the team here at Nine, and he has never looked back. Since moving across, Phil has worked hard to add the expertise and authority of the Bar to the diligence, attention to detail and client-focussed approach he learned as a solicitor.
These days Phil is best-known as a prosecutor of serious and organised crime. He is a category 4 CPS panel advocate and a member of the RASSO panel. He regularly represents the Crown in cases of murder and manslaughter, national and international-scale drugs conspiracies and importations, kidnapping, firearms offences, corruption, rapes and serious sexual assaults, fatal driving offences and serious violence, amongst many others.
He receives repeat instructions from the CPS complex casework unit, commonly dealing with multiple-defendant prosecutions of the utmost gravity, and often involving complex areas of law. He prosecutes on behalf of the National Crime Agency and, since 2020, has been one of the small number of specialist Counsel dealing with the prosecution of the ‘EncroChat’ cases.
Phil has wide-ranging experience of providing pre-charge advice on serious and complex prosecutions, often working with investigators from the outset of a case, assisting and directing them to help build a comprehensive evidential picture.
As part of his serious and organised prosecution portfolio, Phil has gathered extensive experience of disclosure and unused material handling – including highly sensitive information and intelligence management.
Through all of this though, he has not forgotten his roots as a defence lawyer, and Phil remains highly sought-after to defend in cases of the utmost seriousness, particularly where a sensitive and client-focussed approach is required, or where defending is assisted by an intricate knowledge of prosecution procedures.
He has developed a particular reputation for defending professionals such as police officers, teachers and prison staff who are facing criminal charges. Phil also accepts instructions to defend gross misconduct proceedings under the Police (Conduct) Regulations, and can continue to defend police defendants before their professional regulators long after any criminal cases have come to an end.
Phil’s ability and experience across the whole breadth of the criminal justice system has been recognised by judicial appointment as well – he was made a Deputy District Judge in 2017, and has been sitting as a Recorder in the Crown Courts since 2019.
Criminal
Phil came to Chambers having spent nearly twelve years working in a solicitor’s practice devoted solely to criminal defence work. Qualifying as a solicitor in 2005, he appeared in the Magistrates’ and Youth Courts on a daily basis, and almost immediately began to build Crown Court experience into his regular work.
By early 2009 Phil made the step to being a full-time solicitor-advocate, dedicated exclusively to defending criminal cases in the Crown Courts. He went on to build himself a reputation as one of the leading HCAs in Manchester.
Phil is a seasoned practitioner, with significant experience in all areas of criminal proceedings, including:
– murder and attempted murder;
– serious assaults and wounding;
– kidnapping;
– rape and other serious sexual offences;
– historic sexual abuse;
– drugs supply, production and importation;
– robbery, burglary, fraud and theft;
– serious driving offences including those resulting in fatality;
– confiscation proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
He has appeared before the criminal division of the Court of Appeal on a number of occasions in order to appeal against both convictions and sentences.
The Crown Prosecution Service have recognised his significant experience in defending serious and complicated cases by approving him as a category three prosecutor, and a serious sexual offences panel advocate, immediately on him transferring to the Bar.
Phil prides himself on supplementing his experience with an overarching knowledge of the tasks and challenges that criminal solicitors face. He has challenged custody officers in the middle of the night, explained the minutiae of the law to magistrates and negotiated his way through the preparation of complex cases to ready them for court. He knows how these tasks feed into the trial process, and how they matter to your clients. He endeavours to bring a solicitor’s touch and understanding to every element of his work at the Bar.
Notable Cases
R v ST (2024-25)
Prosecuting a serial rapist who attacked four sex workers at knifepoint in the area around Manchester Piccadilly railway station. The case proceeded to trial, the defendant was convicted of all counts and received a life sentence.
Press
– https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8977p9n94jo
– https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14297533/Moment-vile-crack-cocaine-fuelled-rapist-jailed-attacked-string-women-hunts-victims-night-out.html
Greater Manchester Police v PC McD
Defending a junior police officer in gross misconduct proceedings arising out of the officer driving in a manner beyond his authority in order to reach a serious domestic incident as quickly as possible, leading to a collision in which a member of the public was very seriously injured. The police authority also alleged that the officer was dishonest in his reporting after the incident. The officer was cleared of dishonesty, and was cleared of gross misconduct in relation to the driving.
Press
– https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/rookie-cop-who-raced-tragic-30733967
Operation Madura (2024)
A multi-handed murder involving novel legal issues around the ability of the defendants to rely on the ‘householder’ branch of self-defence in circumstances where they had deliberately brought the fatal confrontation to their own door. Phil was responsible for giving pre-charge advice to the police and CPS before the proceedings were brought, and once the case came before the courts he then acted as junior counsel for the Crown.
Press
– https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-68550421
– https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/lads-part-group-who-smashed-28966367
R v DS (2024)
Defending a primary school teacher charged with the repeated sexual assault of a child in his class. Phil was engaged from the outset to represent the defendant from the moment of charge, through the sensitive advanced recording of the evidence of a number of young children through to the defendant’s eventual acquittal at trial.
R v FR (2024)
Prosecuting a defendant who imported over £2.5million worth of cocaine into the UK via the Channel ports, concealing his activities as the legitimate business of a European courier.
Press
– https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/home-removal-driver-stopped-uk-28988419
Operation Glory (2023)
Appearing alone, prosecuting in a 6-defendant class-A drugs conspiracy based upon evidence from the EncroChat network. Phil also represented the prosecution through the confiscation proceedings that followed.
Press
– https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/cocaine-traffickers-shameless-court-selfie-29558295
Operation Malange (2023)
Leading Simon Blakebrough in a 9-defendant “EncroChat” class-A drugs conspiracy. During the course of the case Phil successfully cross-examined Dr Duncan Campbell, one of the foremost independent experts on the reliability of EncroChat data and the limitations of the data capture system. Dr Campbell’s evidence was to suggest that the EncroChat data could not be relied upon to support convictions. The jury convicted.
Press
– https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/portrayed-himself-successful-businessman-reality-28077893
R v JK (2022)
Defending a police sergeant charged with perverting the course of justice. The Crown alleged that the defendant had concealed evidence of him mistreating a suspect during an arrest. The officer was found not guilty on a submission of no case to answer. Phil went on to represent the officer through gross misconduct proceedings before his professional regulators.
R v VDF and PD (2021)
Prosecuting the first defendant for the ‘kneecap’ shooting of a drug rival, leading to the amputation of the victim’s leg. Subsequently prosecuting the first defendant’s mother for assisting an offender for her efforts to conceal the crime committed by her son.
Press
– https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10204517/Company-director-blasted-love-rival-leg-shotgun-force-amputation-jailed.html
Operation Chairs (2020)
Junior for the prosecution in a five-defendant case involving conspiracies to possess firearms with intent, conspiracy to cause GBH with intent and conspiracies to supply drugs. The case was one of the first UK prosecutions which relied upon evidence from the EncroChat breach. The circumstances involved the mistaken-identity shooting of an innocent man on his front doorstep.
Press
– https://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/20057261.gangster-jailed-poplars-avenue-pizza-delivery-shooting/
Operation Leopard (2018-2019)
Junior counsel for the prosecution in the series of trials arising out of the Salford “A-Team” gangland feud which resulted in two firearms murders (including that of Paul Massey) and several attempted murders (including the shooting of seven-year old Christian Hickey and his mother on their front doorstep). The main defendant received a whole-life term of imprisonment. Phil was embedded with the investigation team from the earliest stages of the case, giving pre-charge advice as well as assisting in the direction of the investigation and the handling of vast quantities of unused material and intelligence data.
Press
– https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-46902706
– https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-47911192
Operation Speedway (2018)
Leading junior for the prosecution in a 14-defendant conspiracy to commit armed robbery and to launder the proceeds through fixed-odds betting terminals.
Press
– https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/gang-laundered-fixed-odd-betting-14612826
Appointments
Deputy District Judge (Magistrates’ Courts) (2017)
Recorder (2019)
Associations
Criminal Bar Association
Education
LLB (Hons), University of Leicester
LPC, Manchester Metropolitan University
