Richard Kelly > Red Lion Chambers > Chelmsford, England > Barrister Profile

Richard Kelly

Position

Richard is a fearless Crime advocate who acts for both the prosecution and the defence. Early years of practice included work in civil litigation, family law and employment law; this developed over time into a practice specialising in the prosecution and defence of the most serious and complex crime cases.

Richard has a broad Crime practice and has developed a particular expertise in serious Sexual Offences, particularly those with troublesome evidential elements.

Richard is also very experienced in complex, often high profile, multi-handed Murder & Manslaughter, Serious Violence and Drugs Offences cases. These cases often bring complex issues such as PII, young or otherwise vulnerable witnesses or defendants and contested DNA evidence.

Richard is regularly instructed in cases led by Queen’s Counsel and as leading junior counsel. His meticulous attention to detail, his ability to quickly distil and tackle the real issues and his charming and persuasive jury manner make him a formidable opponent in any case.

He has a particular specialism in cases which involve the collation and analysis of voluminous amounts of documentation (such as telephone data or accounting documents) and cases which involve vulnerable defendants or witnesses.

Richard has been a grade 4 prosecutor on the CPS Advocates Panel and on the Rape and Serious Sexual Offences (RASSO) panel since their inception.

He has lectured fellow professionals on vulnerable witnesses and the use of the Advocates Toolkit.

For a number of years Richard has been cited by the Legal 500 as being a leading junior barrister and he has been ranked in ‘Tier 1’ in both 2016 and 2017.

Career

Year of call: 1994

Inn: Grays

Public Access Barrister

CPS Advocate Panel Grade 4 (highest)

CPS Advocate Panel Rape and Child Sexual Abuse list

Languages

Spanish (fluent) French (conversational)

Memberships

Criminal Bar Association,

South Eastern Circuit

Essex Bar Mess

Gray’s Inn

Education

BA Law/Economics (Joint Honours): University of Middlesex