Serious violence
Allegations of serious violence that are tried in the Crown Court, usually with several defendants and one incident.
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What this covers
- Wounding with intent and grievous bodily harm, section 18
- Violent disorder and affray
- Firearms offences, including possession with intent to cause fear of violence
- Kidnap, blackmail and robbery where violence is alleged
- Multi-defendant trials arising from a single incident
What actually happens
- Section 18 or section 20
- The difference is intent, and it is the difference between a sentence measured in years and one that may not be immediate. It is very often the only live issue in the case.
- Identification
- Group violence cases turn on who is who on the footage. Identification evidence has its own rules and its own warning to the jury, and a weak identification can be excluded before trial.
- Self-defence
- Once it is raised, the prosecution has to disprove it. What a defendant honestly believed at the time matters more than what was in fact true.
Cases
As his chambers describes them.
R v SR. and others2015
Successful defence of a serious group section 18 assault with baseball bats. R v. AM and others (2013): Armed robbery of cash in transit. Case dropped following successful challenge to the identification evidence. R v. MH and others (2013): Gang affiliated conspiracy to kidnap and blackmail with firearms. Successful submission of no case to answer. R v. MI and others (2013): Successful defence of a group section 18 with bats.
Operation K-order2010
Serious gang/drug related kidnap and shooting. Six week trial.
Operation Prime2010
Kidnap of a wealthy Chinese student and ransom demand from his shipping merchant parents. Eight-week trial. R v. A and others (2006): Multi-handed serious section 18 assault, defendant acquitted.
R v B and others2005
Victim kidnapped in Pakistan and ransom demand made in the UK.
Taken from the case list his chambers publishes. Not all of the cases Imran Shafi KC has been involved in are set out on this site, for various reasons including confidentiality.
What Imran does about it
He takes the identification and admissibility points first, because they decide the shape of the trial, and runs self-defence or lack of intent on the evidence rather than on assertion.
Regulated by the Bar Standards Board. Authorised to accept Public Access instructions. Not authorised to conduct litigation.