Pump Court Chambers

Criminal law, including appeals, wrongful convictions and miscarriages of justice.

Matthew accepts instructions by direct access, not just in purely criminal matters, but also in related areas of the law such as applications to amend or revoke Sexual Offender Prevention Orders etc.

As "barristerblogger" he is one of the country's best known legal bloggers and runs the website www.barristerblogger.com.

Matthew is a member of the Criminal Bar Association and the Criminal Appeal Lawyers Association.

Call: 1985

In his advisory work he is sometimes instructed to advise Police forces and Local Authorities, as well as individuals seeking to set aside wrongful convictions.

Selected cases:

R v. A [2020] EWCA Crim 849

Conviction for penetrative sexual abuse of child quashed after court received fresh expert evidence.

R v MA [2019] EWCA Crim 178

Court of Appeal quashed conviction over judge’s summing up of bad character evidence in alleged case of marital rape. Matthew represented the appellant who was formally acquitted after the CPS eventually offered no evidence at the retrial.

R v. MM & SJ [2019] EWCA Crim 1570

Historic allegations of child rape and cruelty. Court of Appeal gave leave to appeal and ruled that “expert” counselling evidence on the effects of child abuse was wrongly admitted as a result of errors by the original trial counsel, but nevertheless upheld conviction.

Attorney General's Reference (R v. L.) [2018] 1 Cr. App. R. (S.) 2

Court of Appeal refused Attorney-General’s attempt to increase sentence in S.18 stabbing case.

R v Gough [2015] EWCA Crim 1079

Right to appear naked in court “The Naked Rambler.” The first and so far only time an appellant has appeared naked in the Court of Appeal, albeit by video link.

R v Xiong Xu [2007] EWCA Crim 3129

Leading case on sentences for cannabis cultivation.

R v Corcoran [2003] EWCA Crim 43

Murder of Horndean schoolgirl Helen Gorrie. Conviction quashed on appeal. Case remains unsolved.

Criminal Bar Association Criminal Appeal Lawyers Association National Union of Journalists

Matthew is a well known legal blogger and journalist.

As well as running the award-winning legal blog www.barristerblogger.com, Matthew writes on legal issues for national newspapers and websites including The Daily Telegraph, The Times, Standpoint, The Spectator, The New Statesman and Quillette.  He also contributes to professional journals including Counsel, Criminal Law and Justice, the Criminal Bar Quarterly and Scottish Legal News. He regularly broadcasts on BBC and independent national and local radio and is in demand as a speaker on legal affairs for example on rape laws at the Battle of Ideas and on miscarriages of justice to FACT (“False Allegations Against Carers and Teachers”).

Publications http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/law/article3185193.ece http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/law/article2215564.ece http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/apr/26/law.ukcrime?INTCMP=SRCH http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01ng83c