Abigail Penny

Abigail Penny is a highly sought-after barrister with longstanding experience of defending in heavyweight cases involving murder, armed robbery, kidnap, large-scale drug conspiracies and those accused of involvement in organised crime. Over the last 4 years, she has been instructed to defend in many of the EncroChat-based prosecutions, frequently for those alleged to operate at the highest levels of organised crime. She is a committed advocate and is often instructed as a leading junior as part of a large team. Her work typically requires management of cases with significant complexity, that she prepares with the utmost skill and attention to detail. Many of her cases involve intricate and difficult areas of disclosure which often concern issues that impact upon public interest considerations.

She has substantial experience of “white collar” crime including representing company directors, bankrupts, long firms, “phoenix” companies and frauds against the government.

She is direct access qualified.

Her experience of defending those facing high-profile allegations includes:

• The successful defence of the alleged head of an organised crime group who was accused of giving the order to shoot a doorman outside a nightclub in the North of England. The case was tried over 10 weeks by a protected jury at the Central Criminal Court.
• The defence of the man who made a bomb using a technique found in the Islamic State magazine, Inspire, and attempted to detonate it on the London Underground in Greenwich [Read More].
• The successful defence of an innocent man charged with rape who found himself in the full glare of substantial media attention [Read More].
• The defence of a police officer accused of misconduct in public offence for failing to investigate sexual allegations fully. The case involved substantial documentation and required knowledge of extremely intricate aspects of police procedures [Read More].
• Representing the man who was shot by the Metropolitan Police firearms officers after a six-hour siege in Brixton [Read More].

Her appellant work includes the successful appeal against conviction in circumstances where the Crown conceded that it had failed to deal with disclosure adequately in the context of an alleged violent rape allegation see Regina v Matthew Poole [2017] EWCA Crim 208, 2017 WL 01032027 and a successful appeal against sentence in relation to EncroChat in Rex v Charlie Moran [2023] EWCA Crim 1431, 2023 WL 08622641.

Experience of successful representation in professional disciplinary defence work, confiscation and cash seizures.

Called 1999

Criminal Bar Association Howard League for Penal Reform Middle Temple

University of Wales, 2:1 English Literature 1995
Common Professional Examination 1998
Inns of Court School of Law 1999