Nicola Shannon KC > Chambers of Sally O’Neill and Michael Holland KC > London, England > Barrister Profile
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16 Took’s Court
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Nicola Shannon KC
Work Department
Crime and Regulatory
Position
Nicola Shannon has a successful Leading Junior practice in Crime, both prosecuting and defending. She also sits as a Recorder, is on the CPS Counter-Terrorism list (Grade 4) and was this year appointed to the Serious Fraud Office Counsel Panel A.
Her practice is focused on serious and complex crime, with an emphasis on Organized Crime, Fraud, Modern Slavery and Serious sexual offences. Many of her cases involve intelligence-led investigations and international mutual legal assistance.
She frequently undertakes leading briefs, and is often selected to deal with novel and challenging areas of law. Her juniors Patrick Duffy, Max Hardy and Ross Talbott have all been ranked previously by Legal 500. She often appears against Silks and her cases frequently attract significant media attention.
Recent such cases have included defending an international rugby player dubbed ‘the Princeton Rapist’ by the press
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/sex-attacker-expelled-princeton-rape-b923768.html
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/princeton-rugby-player-rape-trial-b1794713.html
and successfully prosecuting two police officers for a baton attack on a member of the public.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/romford-fight-police-officers-baton-assault-b918790.html
She also prosecuted a politically-connected defendant for the national supply of ‘party platters’ of drugs. The case arose out of an investigation into the defenstration of a reality TV star who had fallen to her death shortly after taking class A Drugs. The investigation was later the subject of an ITV documentary.
www.thesun.co.uk/news/7738916/drug-dealer-daniel-lewis-aimee-spencer-geordie-shore-death
www.theargus.co.uk/news/17362711.daniel-lewis-jailed-after-appeal-against-suspended-sentence/
Nicola Shannon has experience in criminal courts at all levels, including the House of Lords/ Supreme Court, where she was junior counsel in R v Saik (2006) UKHL 18, a leading case on the mental element in offences of money-laundering. She continues to deal with complex matters at appellate level on her own.
She was leading counsel in the first series of trials under s71 Coroners and Justice Act 2009 (the forerunner of the Modern Slavery Act 2015) beginning in 2012 (R v Connors and others, Luton C C) representing members of the travelling community.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-22433982
www.itv.com/news/anglia/story/2012-04-18/slavery-trial/
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-19636018
In 2019 she also pioneered a prosecution under the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 for the supply of Spice in Lewes Prison – thought to be the only such prosecution prior to the re-categorisation of spice to bring it within the mainstream statutory regime (R v Swaysland and others, Lewes CC).
www.brightonandhovenews.org/2019/01/09/brighton-family-accused-of-running-prison-drugs-ring
She advises the CPS and police investigators at an early stage in Organised Crime, Fraud and Serious Sexual Cases, often involving sensitive political or cultural issues.
She has extensive experience of high-value fraud and money-laundering cases and defended in a drugs importation case at Maidstone C C in 2013 (Op.s Viracocha and Synthetic), which culminated in POCA proceedings in which the prosecution sought confiscation orders valued at £138 million. She has been appointed to the 2021 Serious Fraud Office Advocate Panel A.
As leading counsel she has also prosecuted a number of high value benefit frauds for local authorities, including one involving a gender-reassigned identity fraudster (R v MJ, Harrow C C):
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7481179/Transsexual-countess-jailed-over-benefits-fraud.html
Between 2016 – 17 she led the prosecution of five members of the biggest county lines drugs network in Sussex for the Kidnap and torture over 6 hours of two men caught up in a botched blackmail attempt. All were convicted over the course of two trials and those convictions upheld in the CA. (Op. Kelvin).
www.theargus.co.uk/news/15272125.five-jailed-over-the-torture-of-two-men-in-brighton
www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/five-strong-gang-tortured-hostages-9838001
She also regularly undertakes firearms and other gang-related cases, for both the prosecution and the defence.
In 2019 she led the prosecution team in a rare prosecution of social media-based Child Sexual Exploitation within the Orthodox Jewish communities in London and Manchester.
www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/jewish-man-jailed-for-sexual-offences-against-underage-girls-1.489385
talkradio.co.uk/news/opportunist-internet-groomer-found-guilty-sex-offences-19073031766
In 2020, she again led for the prosecution in a difficult Child Sexual Exploitation case brought to charge under the Victim’s Right to Review by the mother of a young woman with Down’s Syndrome and severe learning difficulties who had been raped by a play worker at the specialist centre she attended. Complex issues of mental capacity arose. (R v Fennell, Snaresbrook C C).
She is currently preparing a case of rape and assault including non-fatal strangulation which has involved a review of new research into the prevalence of strangulation in sexual assault. She is also instructed to prosecute ‘the Camden rapist’ for a campaign of stranger rape.
Subsequent to the Modern Slavery Act 2015 Nicola regularly deals with defences under s45, including the calling of expert evidence. She has also prosecuted cases involving international trafficking, both those involving vulnerable victims and commercial breaches of immigration controls. She is currently instructed to prosecute one such case involving international criminal gangs importing substantial numbers of foreign nationals into the UK (Op. Correspond).
Career
Nicola moved to Furnival Chambers from Lamb Building this year in order to further develop her fraud and counter-terrorism practice.
Nicola is a leader at the Bar, having been elected Junior of the South Eastern Circuit in 2007, followed by Recorder of the Circuit in 2017 – 19. She is currently SEC Wellbeing Director and Immediate Past Recorder. She sits on the Bar Council Wellbeing at the Bar Working Group.
She is involved in the promotion of women at the Bar and is the senior member of a Women in Criminal Law Judicial Mentoring Circle, as well as participating in the Female Fraud Forum and Temple Women’s Forum.
Appointed as a Recorder (2016) with authorisation to try Serious Sexual Offences (2017)
Languages
French
Memberships
Criminal Bar Association
South Eastern Circuit
Women in Criminal Law
Female Fraud Forum
Fraud Lawyers’ Association
Education
Selwyn College, Cambridge (1992 – 96) MA in History and Law
ICSL, Bar Vocational Course (1996 – 7)
Called by Middle Temple, 1997
Lawyer Rankings
London Bar > Crime
(2023 Silks)Ranked: Tier 1Furnival Chambers is increasingly recognised as an ‘excellent set with a large number of highly-rated barristers from pupils to silks‘. Oliver Blunt KC acted for the defendant in a high-profile murder trial concerning the killing by a young man of an off-duty PCSO whilst she walked her dog in the woods. In one of her first murder trials after having taken silk, Rhiannon Crimmins KC acted for one defendant who was acquitted of murder charges in a case concerning joint enterprise shooting, this defendant claimed to have acted as ‘spotter’ without knowledge of the imminent shooting and in a subordinate role within the offending OCG. Nicola Shannon KC took silk in March 2023. Alexia Power was appointed a Circuit Judge in November 2023.