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Alex Benn

Call: 2021

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    “This is an excellent set that has worked hard to secure a well-deserved position amongst the leading sets at the Criminal Bar.”

    Chambers UK Bar, 2022

    Personal profile

    General

    Alex Benn specialises in criminal defence. Alex appears for those accused of serious crimes, having represented defendants tried for causing death by dangerous driving, rape, causing grievous bodily harm with intent to do so, fraud and armed robbery. Alex is currently being led by King’s Counsel in a number of criminal and civil matters.

    Alex first appeared as leading counsel at four years’ call. Recent clients in cases featured in the national press include: the 90-year-old defendant discharged without conditions after inadvertently killing an 85-year-old; and the defendant who received a fine of £100 for throwing an egg at Charles III.

    In addition to first instance proceedings, Alex’s practice extends to appellate and judicial review proceedings that involve criminal law issues. Alex represented the claimant in the first – and, to date, the only – judicial review claim about bail appeals to succeed: R (Molina) v Snaresbrook Crown Court [2024] 4 WLR 40. Last year, against Senior Treasury Counsel and junior, Alex appeared alone for the appellant whose conviction of child cruelty was quashed: R v BCZ [2025] EWCA Crim 1465.

    Academic and Advisory Work

    Alongside practice, Alex is an academic at the University of Oxford, specialising in criminal law, discrimination law and related topics. Alex had studied at Oxford and graduated top of the year, winning university-wide examination prizes. Alex now teaches at University College, St Catherine’s College and the Oxford Law Faculty.

    Alex is therefore often asked to advise in cases that raise difficult points of law or where the criminal law meets other areas of the law. In recent years, Alex has advised individuals, trade unions and other organisations about issues surrounding the criminal law.

    Alex usually uses they/them pronouns and, when necessary, the pre-fix, ‘Mx’.

    Serious Violence

    Selected Cases

    R v D (2025) Southwark Crown Court
    Defended a person charged with attempting to cause GBH with intent to do so (OAPA 1861, s 18) and other offences. The defendant was alleged to have tried to stab his former partner in the throat with a knife or meat cleaver. The complainant’s evidence was that he had attempted to murder her. During the incident, her dog had attacked him, which led to a knife piercing the dog’s eye. The eye had to be surgically removed. The jury unanimously acquitted the defendant in twenty minutes. (Court News UK.)

    R v A (2024) Cambridge Crown Court
    Appeared on behalf of a defendant charged with a set of armed street robberies. The defendant was alleged to have robbed people with a machete and stabbed one of them, while co-defendants had used other weapons. The case involved legal argument about identification evidence and a number of voir dires. The judge accepted a submission of no case to answer in respect of all charges and the defendant was acquitted.

    R v C (2023) Peterborough Crown Court
    Appeared on behalf of a defendant accused of both wounding another with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and aggravated burglary. The defendant had allegedly hit a neighbour over the head with a brick, fracturing the skull. The prosecution offered no evidence.

    R v H (2023) Isleworth Crown Court
    Represented a defendant tried for armed robbery. The complainant alleged that the defendant had stabbed him with a serrated knife and then robbed him of hundreds of pounds in cash. The jury unanimously acquitted the defendant.

    R v C (2023) Southwark Crown Court
    Appeared on behalf of a defendant in a section 28 case (special measures by video-recorded questioning). The allegations included an assault on a young child, as well as coercive and controlling behaviour towards another.

    R v H (2021) Central Criminal Court
    During pupillage, assisted Riel Karmy-Jones KC and Marcus Rickard, who appeared on behalf of the defendant in the widely publicised murder trial concerning the deaths of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman (BBC News.)

    Serious & Organised Crime

    Selected Cases

    R v H (2025) Canterbury Crown Court
    Appeared on behalf of a defendant who had pleaded guilty to a series of acts tending to pervert the course of justice. Over a sustained period, the defendant had made false statements and fabricated evidence, including by inflicting alleged injuries and creating online accounts. The defendant alleged that a former partner had made threats towards her, broken into her house and stabbed her. The police calculated that the allegations wasted 120 hours of time. Despite the seriousness of the offence, the court imposed a suspended sentence order, due to the significant mitigation.

    R v L (2024) Luton Crown Court
    Defended a person charged with violent disorder. The allegations stemmed from children playing a neighbourhood game of ‘knock a door run’, which escalated when a neighbour stabbed the co-defendant with a machete. The incident ended with a car hitting two people, including the defendant, who suffered serious injuries. On the ninth day of trial, the jury acquitted the defendants.

    R v M (2023) Luton Crown Court
    Represented a defendant who had pleaded guilty to committing acts tending to pervert the course of justice. Over a period of five months, the defendant had made a number of claims to the police and employment tribunal, including accusing his colleagues of attempted murder by poisoning him. He had signed false statements and fabricated evidence to that effect. The court imposed a suspended sentence order, a rare outcome in cases of this kind.

    R v S (2023) Cambridge Crown Court
    Defended in a case alleging armed intimidation of a witness in upcoming criminal proceedings. Legal argument included the exclusion of a lip-reader’s expert evidence and the elements of accessorial liability. The jury unanimously acquitted both defendants.

    R v A (2022) Wood Green Crown Court
    Led by Riel Karmy-Jones KC, represented a defendant in a case that raised issues of mental illness, abuse of process and an application to the Attorney General for a nolle prosequi. The prosecution offered no evidence.

    Road Traffic Offences

    Selected Cases

    R v K (2025) Ipswich Crown Court 
    Leading Theo Burges, appeared for a 90-year-old defendant who had inadvertently killed an 85-year-old woman in a Waitrose car park by driving over her. By the week of the trial, the defendant’s health had significantly deteriorated. The defence succeeded in arguing that he was unfit. The Resident Judge proceeded to conduct a trial of the act. The defendant was required to appear by video-link from home with led junior counsel and an intermediary. The defendant ultimately received an absolute discharge.

    R v T (2025) Canterbury Crown Court
    Appeared on behalf of a defendant who had pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving. The defendant had inadvertently hit an eleven-year-old child at a pedestrian crossing. The life-changing injuries included brain damage and a fracture to the base of the skull. Given the delicate circumstances, the mitigation and a submission about the correct interpretation of the sentencing guideline’s reference to ‘a known medical condition’, the court imposed a suspended sentence order. (Kent Online.)

     

    Judicial Review

    Selected Cases

    R (Molina) v Snaresbrook Crown Court [2024] EWHC 816 (Admin); [2024] WLR 183 (DC)
    Acted for the claimant who sought judicial review, with permission, of determinations by the Resident Judge of Snaresbrook Crown Court. The case concerned the requirements for a prosecution to appeal a magistrates’ court’s decision to grant bail to a criminal defendant, as set out in the Bail (Amendment) Act 1993, and the lawfulness of a Crown Court judge’s decisions about bail. The Divisional Court (Davies LJ and Bennathan J) granted the claim on all grounds. (Judgment; Lawyer Monthly; New Law Journal.)

    Private Prosecutions

    Selected Cases

    United Voices of the World (2024)
    Advised a trade union in a case about the criminal law relating to industrial action, instructed by the Public Interest Law Centre. As a result of the representations made, agency staff were not used to replace striking workers.

    Drugs Offences

    R v O (2023) Snaresbrook Crown Court
    Represented a defendant who had pleaded guilty to supplying approximately 7.6 kilogrammes of MDMA, with an estimated street value of £1,300,000.

    Sexual Offences

    R v C (2026) Luton Crown Court
    Led by Jenni Dempster KC, represented a defendant accused of rape and false imprisonment alongside five others. There were significant issues surrounding disclosure and the admissibility of video-recorded interviews. Before the application to dismiss the charges took place, the prosecution offered no evidence on all counts against all defendants.

    R v Anon (2024) Bexley Youth Court
    Defended a child (with a certificate of counsel) charged with distributing images of child sexual abuse. There had been substantial delay and the child had been subject to the same form of exploitation, but the prosecution initially refused to discontinue the case. After the defence used the pre-action protocol for judicial review claims, the prosecution discontinued the charges.

    R v A (2024) Reading Crown Court 
    Represented a defendant charged with sexual assault of a fellow university student. A delicate case, it involved an intermediary for the defendant for the whole trial, vulnerable witnesses, a number of psychiatrists and legal argument about the admissibility of previous complaints of alleged sexual offending by others. The jury acquitted the defendant on the fifth day of trial.

    R v Anon (2024) Luton Youth Court
    Defended a young person, having been granted a certificate of counsel due to the seriousness of the allegations and the sensitivity required. After a multi-day trial, the young person was acquitted of both assault by penetration and sexual assault.

    R v D (2023) Luton Crown Court
    Represented a defendant who had pleaded guilty to arranging a sexual offence involving a child. The case saw successful legal argument as to the correct linked offence for the purposes of sentence. (ITV News.)

    Contempt of Court

    R v K, M and H (2022) Oxford Crown Court
    Represented three people said to have been in contempt of court as reluctant witnesses in an attempted murder trial, for which the defendant had been sentenced to over twenty-eight years’ imprisonment. (ITV News; Oxford Mail.)

    Cyber Crime & Data Protection

    R v D (2022) Kingston Crown Court
    Appeared on behalf of a teacher accused of computer hacking and breach of data protection law. The prosecution offered no evidence after defence representations.

    Business Crime & Fraud

    R v T (2023) Southwark Crown Court
    Represented a defendant charged with fraud by false representation. The prosecution offered no evidence on receipt of an application to dismiss based on the absence of the intent to gain or cause loss.

    R v S (2022) Norwich Crown Court
    Defended in a case subject to the Chief Magistrate’s special jurisdiction, involving an employee accused of stealing from the police force. Having received representations, the prosecution offered no evidence.

    R v M (2022) Holborn Crown Court (Nightingale)
    Defended a person against allegations of money laundering, arising from blackmail by threats to distribute intimate photographs. The jury unanimously acquitted the defendant.

    Education

    • Law (Jurisprudence, BA), St Catherine’s College, Oxford: first-class honours
    • Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL), University College, Oxford: distinction

    Awards

    • Wronker Prize (for best overall performance in law), University of Oxford
    • Gibbs Prize (for best combined performance in contract, land, tort and trusts law), University of Oxford
    • Slaughter and May Prize in Criminal Law, University of Oxford
    • Red Lion Chambers Prize in Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Oxford
    • Planethood Foundation Prize in International Criminal Law, University of Oxford
    • Law Faculty Prize in Comparative Equality Law, University of Oxford
    • Wronker Prize in Tort Law, University of Oxford
    • Wronker Prize in Jurisprudence, University of Oxford
    • David Blank Scholarship, St Catherine’s College, Oxford
    • Graduate Scholarship, University College, Oxford
    • Lord Denning Scholarship, Lincoln’s Inn

    Memberships

    • Criminal Bar Association
    • Lincoln’s Inn
    • Grade 2 Advocate Panel (Crown Prosecution Service)

    Publications

    Books

    • Classism: Discrimination the Law Ignores (forthcoming)

    Book Chapters and Journal Articles

    Journal Case Notes and Comments

    • ‘Conspiracy to Cause a Public Nuisance: R v Maxey’, 2025, 8 Criminal Law Review 482
    • ‘Public Order: R v Sarti’, 2025, 6 Criminal Law Review 365
    • ‘Abuse of Process: R v Letby’, 2025, 4 Criminal Law Review 217
    • ‘Causing a Public Nuisance: R v Smith’, 2025, 1 Criminal Law Review 45
    • ‘Electronic Messaging: Cobban v DPP’, 2024, 12 Criminal Law Review 858
    • ‘Henry VIII Power: R (Liberty) v Home Secretary’, 2024, 9 Criminal Law Review 653
    • ‘Manslaughter (Diminished Responsibility): R v Calocane’, 2024, 9 Criminal Law Review 667
    • ‘Loss of Control: R v Drake’, 2024, 4 Criminal Law Review 265
    • ‘Misconduct in Public Office: R v Ali’, 2024, 4 Criminal Law Review 269
    • ‘Malicious Communications: Freedom of Email? Elected Officials, Disability and Expression’, 2024, Journal of Criminal Law
    • ‘Attorney General’s Reference on a Point of Law (No. 1 of 2022)’, 2023, 1 Criminal Law Review 58
    • ‘The “Colston Four”, Proportionality and the Concerns that Linger’, 2023, 87(1) Journal of Criminal Law 61
    • ‘R (Ngole) v Sheffield University’ 2018, 7(2) Oxford Journal of Law and Religion 351
    • ‘R (A and B) v Secretary of State for Health’ 2017, 6(3) Oxford Journal of Law and Religion 631
    • ‘Re JS (A Child)’ 2017, 6(2) Oxford Journal of Law and Religion 413

    Academic and Legal Websites

    Newspapers and Other Press

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