June 2, 2025
Jenni Dempster KC and Joanna Hardy-Susskind have concluded the defence of a man accused of Manslaughter with directed acquittals by the trial judge after the prosecution conceded, mid trial, that there was no longer a realistic prospect of conviction.
The case was unusual. The prosecution alleged that the deceased had sustained a fractured ankle during a fight in the West End of London. They alleged the defendants had unlawfully participated in that fight. Some 7 weeks later, the injured man died. He had suffered a blood clot from the fracture which resulted in a pulmonary embolism: this was fatal. The defendants were initially charged with Murder before the prosecution pursued a count of Manslaughter to trial.
During currency of the trial, Jenni and Joanna posed out-of-court questions to the prosecution’s Pathologist as to the timing of the injury – and identified a separate candidate event which may have caused the fracture. This, coupled with developing expert evidence as to mechanism of that injury, resulted in the prosecution being unable to rule out alternative timings of the fracture and, consequently, being unable to prove causation to the criminal standard.
After very careful consideration, the prosecution conceded there was no longer a realistic prospect of conviction and the trial judge directed the jury to return Not Guilty verdicts for Manslaughter and an alternative s.20 GBH charge.
This case continues the specialism of Jenni Dempster KC and Joanna Hardy-Susskind in homicide cases involving unusual points of fact and law.
Jenni and Joanna were instructed by Natalie Darko, Partner at Edwards Duthie Shamash.
National coverage of the trial via the BBC was here.
