Adrian Langdale QC

R v Elahi & others (2021)

Successful prosecution (leading Ben Isaacs, 7BR) of one of the country’s most prolific, internet based paedophiles and sexual abusers. Elahi was prosecuted on an Indictment containing 160 counts. The case involved an extensive investigation by the National Crime Agency over a period of 3 years and in excess of 2000 victims/survivors worldwide. Elahi blackmailed a number of individuals into carrying out the most sadistic degrading acts upon themselves and others. He also directed the abuse of a catalogue of young children worldwide, including on two occasions where he directed females on the other side of the world, to sexually abuse babies and other individuals to sexually abuse their own young brothers and sisters. Elahi established his own websites and sold in boxsets, the images of the abuse he had directed and obtained through blackmail, threats and coercion, to other abusers, who in turn often targeted the victims again. Elahi further coached and trained others on how to refine their offending. Through the investigation a string of other paedophiles across the Country, who purchased Elahi’s products were identified and have been Prosecuted separately. Elahi was eventually sentenced to a 40 year extended sentence.

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R v Smith (2021)

Successful prosecution (leading Chris Canning, 7BR) of a man charged with the vicious Murder of Andrew Jackson, who was murdered in his own caravan in the early hours of the morning. The case was built entirely upon a compelling web of circumstantial evidence, which identified this defendant as being the only possible person who could have carried out the Murder. This case involved the presentation and challenge to scientific and forensic evidence relating to the mark left on the body of the deceased by the butt of the gun carried by the defendant that night, the presentation of GNSS technology and its reliability in smart phones and the presentation of complex CCTV evidence and blood spatter forensic evidence. The defendant was sentenced to life imprisonment.

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R v Hurt & others (2021)

Successfully defended (leading Rebecca Da Silva, Citadel Chambers) an individual charged alongside three others with a revenge Murder, where all four individuals travelled from Nottingham to Birmingham where the deceased was fatally stabbed. The Jury later acquitted Adrian’s client of murder. The trial involved challenge to the prosecutions CCTV presentation and the admissibility of other prosecution material.

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R v Chand & others (2021)

Successful prosecution of 11 members of a gang (leading Jonathan Cox, The 36 Group). The case involved the possession and use of multiple firearms and a large-scale drugs Conspiracy (Class A). The gang at the centre of the case carried and used firearms in order to protect their lucrative drugs empire from rival gangs. As a result, a number of high-profile shootings were carried out in late 2018 and early 2019, following a turf war. The leaders of the Gang boasted about their exploits in a series of “drill” rap videos which charted their criminal progress and in one example attempted to mock the police investigation whilst on remand awaiting trial for these offences. Following conviction, the leading defendants received lengthy periods of both Life Imprisonment and Extended Sentences.

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R v Hill (2021)

Successfully defended (leading Waheed Baber, Kenworthy Chambers) a young female charged jointly with Murder after she was implicated in the fatal stabbing of an individual carried out by her partner, in Leicester City Centre. The case involved a challenge to the detailed CCTV analysis presented by the prosecution and responding to a ‘cut-throat’ defence run by the co-defendant. Adrian’s client was subsequently acquitted of Murder.

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R v Murray & others (2021)

A complex and lengthy case involving a double shooting in late 2018 at the home address of a local businessman (where a masked gunman approached and shot multiple times through the lounge window into the address) and at a busy city centre club/bar where a passer-by was shot by a masked gunman on a motorbike. Adrian (leading Chris Canning, 7BR) successfully defended one of the leading defendants, against allegations of involvement in the double Conspiracy to Murder. Adrian’s client was found at a police station with the firearm used in the second shooting stored in a package within his underwear. Adrian’s client was later acquitted of both conspiracies to Murder and the alternative conspiracies to Endanger Life. The defence case involved a detailed challenge to forensic evidence presented by the prosecution and the Prosecutions use of telephone evidence, as well as the police investigation.

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R v Brown & others (2020)

Successfully defended an individual who was accused of killing another (with the co-defendant accused of assisting in a cover up) in what was described by the Prosecution as a ‘road rage killing’. The case involved complex pathology and eye-witness evidence and the holding of a voire dire in relation to the propriety of some of the police investigation and police methods and admissibility of evidence obtained from it. Adrian’s client was later acquitted by the jury following a lengthy and complex trial.

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R v Joseph Quigley (2020)

Successful prosecution of Joseph Quigley, a high-profile priest within the Catholic Church for his sadistic and historic abuse of a vulnerable child parishioner whom he was tutoring. Quigley at the time of the abuse held a senior and powerful position within the Catholic Church in the UK, as the national education co-ordinator for the Catholic Church (overseeing hundreds of Catholic Schools nationally and carrying out inspections, including directing the program of Sex Education in the wider education system). Questions were raised during the trial as to the extent of the Catholic Churches investigation, knowledge of abuse and the actions taken by the Catholic Church when allegations of abuse had first surfaced in the early 2000’s. Quigley was convicted and is now serving an extended sentence of imprisonment.

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R v Blackwell (the ‘X-factor Rapist’) (2020)

Successful prosecution of the so called: “X-Factor Rapist”, described by a Sentencing Judge as “Pure Evil”. Blackwell carried out two separate campaigns of Sexual Attacks against vulnerable females, he was linked to a string of historic night-time attacks and knife point rapes against five females in Nuneaton and Birmingham between 1997 and 1998. Blackwell’s DNA was later taken for an allegation in 2020 and following further investigations Blackwell was then linked to a string of further attacks on vulnerable females in the Devon and Cornwall area in the 2000’s, where Blackwell had moved to and at a time when he appeared as a contestant on the ITV show, the ‘X-Factor’. Blackwell is now serving a Life Sentence for his offences.

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What Others have said:

Chambers & Partners (2022):

Chambers & Partners (2021):

Legal 500 (2020):

Chambers & Partners (2018)

Legal Expertise

Crime

Notable Crime cases

R v Elahi & others (2021)

R v Smith (2021)

R v Hurt & others (2021)

R v Chand & others (2021)

R v Hill (2021)

R v Murray & others (2021)

R v Brown & others (2020)

R v Joseph Quigley (2020)

R v Blackwell (the ‘X-factor Rapist’) (2020)

Financial Crime

Notable Financial Crime cases

R v Ayres & Others (2017)

R v Christopher Watson (2016)

R v Wright & Others (2013)