Paul Jackson
Call: 2002
Personal profile
Paul is a highly regarded and much sought-after specialist defence criminal barrister. For many years now he has been instructed to defend in cases of the utmost seriousness including a multitude of murders, serious sexual offences, multi-handed violence, a wide range of drug offences, gun crimes and serious frauds.
At the core of Paul’s success is his focus on meticulous preparation and advising on evidence from the outset of a case employing at every stage the correct tactical approach. His attention to detail and forensic examination allows him to thrive in complex, multi-handed, paper heavy cases.
Paul is an experienced appellate lawyer having appeared many times for appeals against both conviction and sentence.
Recommendations
Paul Jackson blends technical brilliance with passionate argument making him a truly formidable advocate.
Thoroughly erudite advice and outstanding advocacy. Paul is our preferred counsel on any serious case. He is calm and resolute, clients find him impressive and he inspires confidence.
He approaches every instruction with an acute attention to detail. His flawless trial preparation is evident every time he addresses the court.
Paul’s greatest strength is a natural ability quickly to get to the crux of any case he is presented with. His unwavering focus on the key points give his legal arguments a keen-edged precision making them compelling and persuasive.
He is a highly sought-after junior and leading junior. Unflappable under pressure, his affable charisma belies a steely determination in court and his commitment to his clients.
Murder & Manslaughter
Paul’s considerable experience defending in murder and manslaughter cases ranges from multi-handed gang murders to not guilty by reason of insanity murder cases to one-punch manslaughters.
Featured cases
R v AE (2023) – successful defence of a male charged with attempted murder. It was the prosecution case that this was a gang related attempted ‘hit’. The case concerned extensive gang bad character evidence and careful analysis of authorities ranging from R v Awoyemi (2016) EWCA Crim 668 up until R v Heslop (2022) EWCA Crim 897.
R v SA (2022) – Led by Gillian Jones KC – defence of a male charged with the attempted murder of his estranged wife and the murder of her 15-year-old son. News story here: [Manchester Evening News]
R v JS (2022) – Led by Gillian Jones KC – defence of a male charged with the murder and attempted murder of two lone females on two separate nights. News story here: [The Guardian]
R v GK (2021) – Led by Gillian Jones KC – Instructed to represent an 18-year-old charged with murder who the prosecution alleged styled himself on Breaking Bad’s Walter White. Having stabbed a man to death he attempted to dissolve the body in a wheelie bin using sulphuric acid. News story here: [BBC News]
R v IS (2020) – Led by Tom Forster KC – defence of a male charged with murdering a 16-year-old boy. News story here: [Mirror Online]
R v SD (2020) – Led by Jonathan Higgs KC – re-trial of male charged with group murder. An important aspect of this trial concerned challenging expert evidence regarding DNA profiling.
R v JM (2019) – Led by Gillian Jones KC – successful defence of an ex-army officer charged with murder. When the defendant’s affair with his best friend’s wife became public knowledge, the friend threatened to kill the defendant. The defendant acquired a prohibited firearm and then when attacked by his friend, shot him dead. News story here: [The Times]
R v SC (2019) – Led by David Etherington KC – defence of a male charged with murdering his girlfriend. News story here: [The Sun]
R v RI (2019) – Led by Michael Turner KC – successful defence of a male charged with the murder of his 2-year-old daughter. This case involved challenging prosecution expert evidence and calling defence expert evidence across a multitude of fields including biomechanics, neuropathology, forensic pathology, forensic paediatric pathology and ophthalmic pathology.
R v JJ (2019) – defence of a male charged with a one-punch manslaughter.
R v SD (2018) – Led by Jeremy Benson KC – defence of a male charged with murder. All five defendants were under 18 at the time of the group stabbing in East London. Whilst the defendant was convicted, that conviction was subsequently quashed by the Court of Appeal. News story here: [BBC News]
R v HM (2018) – led by Imran Khan KC. Special verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity obtained for a 25 year old male with paranoid schizophrenia who killed his friend by decapitating him and then removing his eyes, tongue and four of his fingers. News story here: [Liverpool Echo]
R v Davis (2017) – led by Jonathan Higgs KC – defence of a young male charged with murder. The Crown’s case was that the defendant stabbed the deceased 14 times in a matter of seconds. Whilst the defendant accepted causing the death of the deceased, he asserted that the deceased attacked him with a knife which he was able to take off of him and then acted in self defence. The defendant was found not guilty. News story here: [BBC News]
Serious & Organised Crime
Paul has extensive experience defending in cases involving alleged organised crime groups (OCG).
Featured cases
R v DG (2023) – Paul Jackson leading Anita Clifford secured unanimous not guilty verdicts for a male charged with conspiracy and possession of 18 firearms and ammunition for sale/transfer. The complex, multi-handed, serious organised crime trial was a prosecution led by the NCA following a long and thorough investigation which included the use of covert surveillance. The 6-week trial included complex disclosure issues and expert evidence on firearm functionality and classification as well as mobile phone data. Paul and Anita were instructed by Lee Barton at Paul Martin and Co Solicitors.
R v PM (2022) – successful defence of a Polish lorry driver charged with importing £4,000,000 worth of heroin.
R v PP (2022) – successful defence of a Polish lorry driver charged with importing 418kgs/£33 million worth of cocaine in his refrigerated trailer.
R v DG (2021) – successful defence of a male charged with the planned robbery of a dwelling. During the incident an 11 year old boy was shot. News story here: [Evening Standard]
R v RP (2021) – successful defence of a male charged with the fraudulent evasion of £1.5million of duty.
R v AL (2018) – defence of a male (1 of 8) charged with conspiracy to facilitate the commission of a breach of immigration law. The modus operandi alleged was the bringing of illegal Albanians across the Channel in RHIBs. This NCA investigation involved cell site, phone analysis, CCTV, ANPR and probe material.
Sexual Offences
Paul has vast experience defending clients charged with the most serious of sexual offences. Those cases have involved successfully cross-examining complainants with a huge range of vulnerabilities including one as young as four years old. Many of the cases concern historic allegations up to 40 years old. In some of the cases the defendants have had prior rape convictions.
Featured cases
R v LH (2023) – defence of a male charged with rape in 1988 and false imprisonment and indecent assault in 1995. The case included an application to stay the 1995 allegations as an abuse of process. The jury heard about the defendant’s rape convictions in 2003 (for an offence in 2002) and in 2012 (for an offence in 2010). News story here: [ITV News]
R v SL (2023) – defence of male charged with the repeated indecent assault and rape of his step-daughter between 1987 and 1997 when aged 5–15, rape and indecent assault of his step-daughter-in-law in 1997 and repeated sexual assault of his step-granddaughter between 2017 and 2018 when she was aged 13-14.
R v JT (2022) – successful defence of a male charged with rape. The issue in the case being whether the complainant was too intoxicated to consent.
R v RS (2021) – defence of a male charged with the rape of a 14-year-old girl in 1996.
R v DB (2021) – defence of a male charged with multiple counts of raping a 10-year-old boy in 1995/1996. The jury heard about the defendant’s convictions for similar offending committed at around the same time.
R v MS (2019) – defence of a male charged with multiple counts of raping a child aged between 3 and 6. The allegations dated back to 1999.
R v HB (2019) – defence of an Eritrean male charged with the gang rape of a student.
R v MB (2019) – successful defence of a male charged with multiple counts of rape. The jury heard about the defendant’s previous convictions for rape and false imprisonment.
R v JH (2018) – leading Charlotte Hole – defence of a male charged with the historic rape, buggery and sexual assault of eight males over three decades. This trial involved an application to stay a count as an abuse of process, the analysis of volumes of third party material, section 41 applications, section 100 and 101 applications and submission of no case.
R v JP (2018) – led by Sarah Forshaw KC – successful defence of a father charged with the anal rape of his 4 year old son. The jury acquitted in 10 minutes.
R v RA (2018) – defence of a male charged with raping his partner’s younger sister.
R v KO (2017) – successful defence of a male charged with the historic assault and rape of an 8-9 year old child looked after by his mother in her role as a child minder.
Serious Violence
Paul has substantial experience defending in cases of very serious violence which fall short of murder/manslaughter. In particular he has appeared many times in attempted murder cases and cases which have resulted in life changing injuries.
Featured cases
R v MJ (2023) – defence of a 14 year old male charged with offering for sale a Mac-11 machine pistol and ammunition 40 minutes after it was used to murder somebody (possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life).
R v DS (2023) – successful defence of the former World Thai Kickboxing Champion charged with controlling and coercive behaviour.
R v JC (2023) – defence of a female with schizoaffective disorder, borderline personality disorder and alcohol dependence charged with committing arson being reckless as to whether life is endangered. This was a difficult case concerning a very vulnerable defendant.
R v DS (2022) – Successful defence of a male charged with an extremely serious aggravated burglary. Two males forced their way into a property in the middle of the night, tortured the husband and wife inside, much of which was witnessed by their son, before realising they had the ‘wrong address’ and fled.
R v GO (2022) – defence of a male charged with forcing his way into a property and stabbing one of the occupants through the thigh severing the femoral artery and vein.
R v HB (2021) – successful defence of a male charged with attempting to murder by repeatedly stamping on the complainant’s head.
R v DP (2021) – successful defence of a male charged with breaking into a property and stabbing his ex-partner’s new boyfriend.
R v DH (2020) – successful defence of a female charged along with four others with conspiracy to commit armed robbery of shop-keepers as they left the cash and carry.
R v MS (2020) – defence of a male charged with the kidnap and torture of a member of a rival drug gang.
R v MG (2018) – successful defence of a male charged with an attempted contract killing.
R v G (2018) – defence of a male who falsely imprisoned and then tortured the victim. The assault included slashing and then holding a hot iron to the victim’s face. News story here: [Kent Online]
Business Crime & Fraud
Paul has appeared many times in cases concerning complex and high-value fraud and money laundering allegations. His fastidious preparation and eye for detail are key to his success in this area.
Featured cases
R v AM (2021) – successful defence of a male charged with committing a high value fraud between 2003 and 2012. The case was stayed as an abuse of process.
R v BR (2021) – defence of a male charged with laundering money to the value of £2.5 million through Bitcoin ATMs.
R v KC (2019) – successful defence of a male charged, along with seven co-defendants, with conspiracy to commit fraud. The case against the defendant was stopped at half-time.
Notable cases
R v Awoyemi and others (2016) 4 W.L.R. 114 – representation of a male charged with attempting to kill two males on two separate occasions. The allegation concerned gang activity and a firearm the defendant was found in possession of days after it had been used in a near fatal shooting. The first allegation was dismissed and the second was stopped at half-time. In this case the admissibility of gang affiliation evidence featured heavily.
R v Alan Newell (2012) 1 W.L.R. 3142 (overturning the decision in R (on the application of Firth) v Epping Magistrates’ Court (2011) 4 All.E.R. 326) – defence of a male charged with possession of class A drugs with intent to supply. Some time before trial the defendant sacked his original solicitors and Counsel. At trial, the defendant accepted possession of the drugs but denied having any intent to supply. The Crown were allowed by the trial judge to put to the defendant as a lie the fact that his original barrister had listed the trial issue as “no possession” on the PCMH form. The resultant conviction was quashed in the Court of Appeal.