Riel M Karmy-Jones KC > Red Lion Chambers > London, England > Barrister Profile

Riel M Karmy-Jones KC

020 7520 6000 Chambers@18rlc.co.uk View profile

Position

Riel Karmy-Jones KC’ principal area of practice, and both prosecutes and defends. As a leading silk she is best known for her work in the murky world of organised crime.

She has a high-profile practice which includes Murder & Manslaughter, Serious Organised Crime, Sexual Offences, and Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking, particularly cases involving vulnerable witnesses and defendants.

Riel also has regulatory experience and has in recent years been instructed in high-profile cases where regulatory law intersects with criminal offences, principally in sexual and historic allegations (SRA, NMC, UKA).

Between 2017-2019 she was Senior Counsel to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse leading the investigation into the Roman Catholic Church, and specifically dealing with the hearings and reports on the English Benedictine Congregation.

Riel was shortlisted for Crime Silk of the Year in Legal 500’s UK awards 2019, and listed in the Hot 100, by the Lawyer Magazine in 2020.

She is a contributing editor to a number of legal texts, including Archbold – Criminal Pleading, Evidence and Practice; Rook and Ward Sexual Offences: Law and Practise; Young, Corker and Summers on Abuse of Process In Criminal Proceedings; and Human Rights in Criminal Law.

Career

Year of call: 1995

Inn: Lincolns and Inn

Year made KC: 2015

Publications:

Archbold – Criminal Pleading, Evidence and Practice, 2017 to present, contributing editor

Rook and Ward: Sexual Offences Law and Practise, 2016 to present, contributing editor

Abuse of Process In Criminal Proceedings, 2022, contributing editor

Human Rights in Criminal Law, Bloomsbury, 2022

IICSA Reports in respect of Child Sexual Abuse at Ampleforth, Downside, and Ealing Abbeys and their associated schools, 2018-2019, contributing editor

Articles:

‘Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery – “a very particular set of skills”’, Archbold News, June 2022

‘“Virginity Testing”, Hymen Surgery and Misogyny: What Should the Law Do?’, Counsel Magazine, July 2021

‘Case in Depth Review of DDP v M and what weight should be given to the decisions of the Single Competent Authority in Criminal trials’, Archbold News, May 2021

‘The Impact of Covid-19 on Victims of Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery’, Lawyer Magazine, July 2020

Commentary on R v Joseph [2017] EWCA Crim 36 (dealing with the availability of the defence provided by s.45 of the MSA to victims of human trafficking), Criminal Law Review, March 2017

Joint Interview with Peter Carter KC on Modern Slavery Act 2015, Lexis Nexis, May 2015

Lectures / Training:

‘Stages in the Life of a Public Inquiry’, RLC Webinar, July 2021

Speaker on ‘Vulnerable Witnesses in the context of Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery investigations’, The Cambridge Centre for Applied Research in Human Trafficking, June 2019

Speaker on the ‘Handling of Vulnerable Witnesses and English Criminal Procedure’, symposium with the Norwegian Law Commission at Oxford University, with Prof Laura Hoyano of RLC, March 2016

Lecture and seminar on ‘Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking’, Amnesty International, February & April 2016

‘The Modern Slavery Act’, CBA Winter Conference, December 2015

Talk to the National Strategic Modern Slavery Meeting organised by Shaun Sawyer, Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Police and National Policing Modern Slavery Lead, June 2015

Talk to the Czeck/British Conference in Prague, organised by the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic assisted by the British embassy in Prague, March 2015

Called to give evidence before the Joint Parliamentary Committee in respect of the Modern Slavery Bill, Jan 2015

‘Modern Slavery, The Burden on the Victim and the Role of the Criminal Justice System’, Conference on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative, June 2014

‘Human Trafficking’, Anti-Slavery International Conference, Jan 2014

‘Human Trafficking seminar’, West Midland Circuit, speaking with Peter Carter KC, November 2013

Speaking on the case of R v Anthony Harrison,: use of Juju in Trafficking out of Nigeria, Trafficking Law and Policy Forum, June 2012

Memberships

CBA

South Eastern Circuit

Patron of PAN Intercultural Arts (working with the victims of human trafficking)

Lincoln’s Inn

Inner Temple

Education

Tempo School, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada University of Alberta, Canada; Drama Studio, London; University College London University [UCL]; BA [1985], LLB Hons [1994]