Francis FitzGibbon QC

f.fitzgibbon@doughtystreet.co.uk

Year of Silk

2010

Year of Call

1986
Francis FitzGibbon QC
Profile

Francis FitzGibbon QC is a highly regarded specialist criminal silk, with extensive experience in homicide, fraud, drugs cases and other serious crime. He has consistently featured as a leader in criminal law in Chambers & Partners Directory.

 

Francis is a contributing author A Practitioner's Guide to the Law and Regulation of Financial Crime (Sweet & Maxwell 2011). He is a member of the Doughty Street Chambers management committee. He sits as an Immigration Judge, which has enriched his understanding of human rights law.

 

Francis hosts a legal blog, 'Nothing Like the Sun': ffgqc.wordpresss.com and he can also be found on Twitter: @ffgqc

 

For further details of some of the recent or interesting cases in which he has appeared, please see areas of expertise below.

Criminal Appeals

Francis regularly receives instructions in complex criminal appeals in the Court of Appeal (including advice work on applications to the CCRC), often when the lay or professional client needs a second opinion after receiving negative advice (or no advice) from trial representatives.

  • Lovelock [2012]: application to adduce fresh evidence in historic child sex abuse case
  • Thompson [2012]: the extent to which sentence must have regard to jury’s not guilty verdict in a case of mixed verdicts
  • Otway [2011] EWCA Crim 3: admissibility of controversial expert evidence of identification by podiatric ‘gait analysis’
  • Kulah [2007] Crim LR 907: use of Newton hearings in cases of indefinite prison sentences for public protection
  • Evon Smith [2006] 1 WLR 243:  successful Privy Council death row appeal from Jamaica
  • P [2002] 1AC 146: admissibility of foreign phone interceptions (House of Lords)

Homicide and Related Grave Offences

Francis has appeared in many homicide trials, including gang related murder, and cases with complex technical or medical evidence, including

  • Conteh [Central Criminal Court 2011]: multi-handed gang murder. 17 year old client with abnormally low IQ & compliant personality. Joint enterprise. Acquitted of murder.
  • Livesey [Manchester Crown Court 2010]: Murder in course of robbery. Victim died 6 months later of a cluster of serious medical conditions. Issue was causation, with technical medical evidence on three separate areas. Acquitted of murder.
  • White [Luton Crown Court 2009]: gross negligence manslaughter. Experts on brain damage and survivability from catastrophic head injuries. Acquitted on half-time submission.
  • Mathurin [Central Criminal Court 2007]: gang killing. Defendant later became one of the first ‘supergrasses’ to sign a contract under the Serious Organised Crime & Police Act 2005

Regulatory and Financial Crime

  • Hart [Croydon Crown Court 2011]: VAT ‘missing trader’ fraud, worth over £120,000,000
  • Bahmanzadeh [Plymouth Crown Court 2010]: confiscation proceedings, worth over £8,000,000
  • Lynch [Central Criminal Court 2007]: the Kieran Fallon horserace fixing trial

Other Serious Criminal Offences

  • Thompson [Newcastle Crown Court 2012]: conspiracy to commit misconduct with a Northumbria detective and others, and conspiracy to supply class A drugs
  • Abadom [Newcastle Crown Court 2012]: conspiracy to supply heroin
  • Bryant [Newcastle Crown Court 2012]: ‘cold-case’ historic child abuse and kidnappings from 1980s
  • Britton [Chelmsford Crown Court 2008] conspiracy to pervert the course of justice involving allegations of police corruption in Essex
  • R v Shahchirghi [Harrow Crown Court] multi-handed gang kidnapping and torture
  • R v Streeks [Kingston Crown Court 2009]: large-scale conspiracy to supply cocaine
  • Operation Falbala [Basildon Crown Court 2009]: £500,000 tax credit fraud
  • Medway Ports Authority v Fincken [2011]: Medway Ports Authority v Fincken (Administrative Court 2010) : jurisdiction of Magistrates to dismiss case against the captain of Greenpeace ship for want of prosecution

Courts Martial

Francis has represented members of the armed forces in Court Martial proceedings, including cases of some sensitivity where German civilians were involved.

Immigration Business and Commercial

Francis FitzGibbon QC has more than a decade’s experience as an Immigration Judge and has an in-depth knowledge of the law and procedure in immigration, asylum and deportation cases. Francis has a particular interest in business immigration and is well placed to advise corporate and individual clients on the whole range of issues arising within this area, including challenges to the Points Based System.  He is authorised to accept such cases under the Bar Council’s Public Access Scheme.   

Education

Magdalen College, Oxford

 

Languages

French

 

Memberships

Member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for Criminal Appeals

Criminal Bar Association

South Eastern Circuit

Publications

View all publications
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