Peter Clark > 187 Chambers > London, England > Barrister Profile

Peter Clark

020 7430 7430 peterclark@187chambers.com View profile

Position

Peter is a very experienced and highly respected leading junior who deals with
wide-ranging cases but specialising in sexual offences and serious violence,
including murder.
Exclusively criminal practice, equally balanced between defence and prosecution
(Grade 4 CPS)
Published author of textbook on sexual offences – Co-author of Richardson &
Clark: Sexual Offences, A Practitioner’s Guide, published by Bloomsbury
Professional
Extensively involved in advocacy training
“An excellent and gifted advocate, well respected by other counsel and the
judiciary”
“Someone you want with you in a crisis … quick-witted and unflappable … displays
confidence without arrogance and establishes excellent rapport … his manner is
immediately reassuring”

Career

Criminal Defence:
R v G (Worcester) – Leading junior (replacing QC for retrial): Serving police
officer acquitted of historic sexual offences
R v Philo-Steele (Kingston) – Leading junior in 10-week trial of multi-victim child
sexual abuse over 15 years by a male ‘nanny’: Included pre-recorded video
cross-examination of 4 children
R v H (Lewes) – Multiple child rapes: 21-year-old unfit to plead, but fully acquitted
on trial of the facts
R v Franklin (Court of Appeal) – Sexual Harm Prevention Order amended on
appeal from Chelmsford
R v V (Cambridge) – Aggravated burglary and s18 GBH (hammer attack) on a
vulnerable woman: Acquitted
R v C (Chelmsford) – Albanian female asylum-seeker on immigration charges:
Acquitted
R v Good (Basildon) – Aggravated arson, with intermediary for vulnerable
defendant
R v C (Lewes) – Private client cleared by jury of robbery
R v JE (Blackfriars) – Represented the only defendant to be acquitted in
5-handed multi-victim child sex ring trial
R v G (Basildon) – Law student acquitted at trial of theft of high value watch
R v D (Snaresbrook) – Child rape allegations: acquitted despite alleged
confessions and writings apparently supporting paedophilia
R v H (Chichester) – Acquittal of a man accused of penetrative sexual assaults on
three children in a care home run by his parents in 1970s
R v K (Exeter) – Represented youth in ‘county lines’ Class A drugs conspiracy
R v Cole (Canterbury) – Solicitor convicted at trial of trying to smuggle Albanian
male through the Channel Tunnel: Suspended sentence
R v M (Manchester + Court of Appeal) – Leading junior at retrial for campaign of
rape against wife: Convictions overturned on appeal (unfair summing-up) and the
Court of Appeal refused a further retrial

Criminal Prosecution:
R v Chandler (No.1) (Chelmsford) – Murder (single counsel): Convicted at trial:
Minimum term 20 years
R v Chandler (No.2) (Chelmsford) – 24 days into his murder sentence, Chandler
repeatedly stabbed a fellow inmate in an attempted murder: Further life sentence,
minimum term 30 years
R v Sharpe (Cambridge) – (Junior alone) Murder of one victim and attempted
murder of another after the defendant’s partner left him: Minimum term 25 years
R v Margetson (Chelmsford) – Attempted murder trial (junior alone): knife attack
on female ex-partner: Life sentence
R v Bissett (Cambridge) – Attempted murder (strangulation) of a baby
R v Rooney (Ipswich) – Attempted rape/sexual assault: defendant unfit to plead:
convicted later when declared fit
R v Payne (Chelmsford) – Attempted murder of close friend: Convicted at trial
R v Roberts (Chelmsford) – Attempted murder: meat cleaver attack on woman:
Life sentence
R v Clampin, Steingold & others (Chelmsford) – Prosecuted alone a 7-week
trial of 6-handed large scale conspiracy to steal lorry cargo
R v Mountain (Chelmsford) – Multi-victim rape/sexual assault: Convicted at trial –
appeal refused
R v Whiting (Southend) – Multi-victim child rapes, unfit to plead but ‘did the acts’
R v Fay (Basildon) – 43-year-old raped girl aged 12: Convicted at trial – appeal
refused
R v Ryan (Basildon) – Fatal child neglect: baby died when abandoned by
alcoholic mother
R v Cessford (Basildon) – Death by dangerous driving: Unlicensed 17-year-old
fatally crashed stolen 4×4 car
R v Duff (Chelmsford) – Multiple rapes of a 47-year-old woman in a public place
by a teenage stranger
R v Cockle (Basildon) – Sexual assault by coach of 15-year-old female
professional footballer
R v Evers (Chelmsford) – Magistrate/Home Office official tied up, blindfolded,
beat and raped a male student in a half-hour masked attack: Indeterminate
sentence

Fraud & Financial Crime:
R v C & another (Chelmsford) – Leading junior in telecommunications fraud with
complex technical evidence: Acquitted
R v Long (Basildon & Southwark) – Led by Richard Christie QC instructed by
Serious Organised Crime Agency in successful prosecution of high value fraud
and arson conspiracy plus confiscation proceedings
Military & Courts Martial
R v G & others – Court-Martial on alleged group sexual offences among
Parachute Regiment in Afghanistan: Half-time acquittal
Regulatory Law
Environment Agency v APH – defended skip company on allegations of
dumping unlicensed waste: Acquitted at trial
Health & Safety Executive v Strong Clad Ltd & others – Mitigation for
company in breach of Work At Height Regulations: Modest fine imposed despite
serious incident

Languages

French

Memberships

Criminal Bar Association
South Eastern Circuit
Essex Bar Mess (Bar Mess Junior 2010-2012)

Education

Awards, Qualifications & Other:
Grade 4 CPS Counsel
CPS Rasso Panel
Post-Graduate Diploma in Law (University of Northumbria, Newcastle)
Bar Vocational Course (College of Law, London)
Master of the Bench, Inner Temple (elected 2018)
Pupil Supervisor (since 2008)
Inner Temple Advocacy Trainer (since 2009) and Teacher Trainer (since
2012)
Co-Director of Inner Temple’s Advocacy & The Vulnerable training
programme
Member of Inner Temple Advocacy Training Committee
Member of Inner Temple Education & Training Committee
External Advocacy Assessor for Crown Prosecution Service
Faculty Member Advanced International Advocacy Course, Keble College,
Oxford
Advocacy Training/Teacher Training for Inns of Court College of Advocacy
in Warsaw, Singapore, Wroclaw and Nairobi
Co-author of Richardson & Clark: Sexual Offences, A Practitioner’s Guide,
published by Bloomsbury Professional

Leisure

Aviation, travel, yachting.