Katy specialises in defending people accused of the most serious violence, including murder and manslaughter, sexual allegations, and child abuse. She is frequently instructed in multi-handed murders and is “always thorough and well-prepared” (Legal 500). With long experience of representing vulnerable defendants and professionals whose careers are on the line, her client care is second to none.
Katy is regularly instructed in heavy fraud and money laundering cases. Her experience in the financial industry provides her with particular insight into how businesses actually work. She has a flair for getting the best out of anxious clients, and in court, she knows when to ruffle feathers and when to charm. Her recent cases include an international conspiracy to defraud, privately prosecuted by the Premier League; high-value bank fraud and money laundering; conspiracy to defraud by false representation; and a multi-million-pound boiler room fraud. She is always available for pre-charge advice and will actively pursue all available routes to prevent prosecution.
Her clients—whether professionals accused of fraud or sexual offending, parents accused of baby abuse, teenagers accused of gang killings, or Interested Persons in inquests—receive a combination of tactical nous, clever legal arguments, robust advocacy, and skilled jury craft to obtain the best possible outcome.
Katy has particular expertise challenging expert witnesses, from medical professionals to cell site specialists. She is “excellent on forensic issues, especially baby-shaking cases and appeal work”, (Legal 500) and “has an exceptional ability to unravel complex medical evidence and deal with expert witnesses” (Chambers & Partners). She is often sought by professionals facing regulatory body proceedings, particularly where these arise as a result of criminal allegations. In 2015, she published Mason’s Forensic Medicine for Lawyers with Professor Helen Whitwell and others.
Katy’s inquest work has become a larger part of her practice in recent years, and she has experience representing Interested Persons in deaths involving suspected suicide, alleged lack of care in hospitals and prisons, and resulting from violence. She sits as an Assistant Coroner in Berkshire.
Katy has a long and established record in second opinion appellate work, including before the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Her clients praise her brilliant judgment, robust court presence, and creative intelligence, and they always appreciate that she is easy to work with.
"Katy is an outstanding silk. She is talented, meticulous in her forensic analysis and builds a rapport with clients. Her advice and strategy is trusted and she delivers in court." - Chambers and Partners, 2025
"Katy gets great results and is very good on appeals work." - Chambers and Partners, 2025
"Katy is so thorough and clear in her preparation and has complete control of the case. She is a master of her trade and has outstanding advocacy skills." - Chambers and Partners, 2025
"Katy is a very powerful defence barrister.” - Chambers and Partners, 2025
"Katy is everything you would want in a modern silk. She is bright, engaging and has a real human touch. She is brilliant at bringing people together and juries love her.” - Legal 500, 2025
"Katy has formidable medico-legal knowledge and has the ability to explain the most complicated of legal concepts and complex evidence in simple terms. ” - Legal 500, 2025
Katy is extremely experienced in sexual crime litigation (historic, inter-family, gang-related, cold-case, male on male, transsexual; sex rings; and in relationships), and she has a national reputation for cases involving violence against young children and babies. She has expertise in high profile cases.
Her cross-examination skills are well honed, and she is adept at challenging witnesses from medical experts to young witnesses (including those with learning disabilities and with intermediaries).
Notable cases include R v Henderson, Butler, Oyediran, a leading authority on shaken baby allegations which led Katy to become one of the most sought-after advocates in this field.
Past successes include cases thrown out due to arguments of abuse of process and/or doli incapax in historic cases. More than one such argument has resulted in the prosecution choosing not to pursue the case, even where clients had relevant previous convictions. Recent cases include R v D & D (a child crushed to death in the footwell of a car) R v K & N (sexual abuse in the context of faith healing).
Katy is expert in cases involving medical, DNA, and toxicological evidence, and her breadth of cases ranges from gang-related murders to attempted mercy killings; from deaths in custody to fatal arson attacks.
Katy has been instructed in many cases involving clients with challenging presentations, in which her exceptional client care skills and talent for expert-handling are prerequisite to success. Of note, she succeeded in securing an acquittal for a prisoner accused of his third murder, allegedly killing a fellow inmate for cannibalistic motives (R v M); for a mentally ill woman accused of attempting to murder her terminally ill mother for altruistic reasons (R v T); for a lifer accused of raping another male prisoner (R v R); and for a troubled 16-year-old who stabbed his 17-year-old friend in the back (R v K).
Katy is frequently instructed in cases involving people accused of homicide in the course of their work, from prison officers (R v S and others and R v H and others) to nurses (R v M and others). These cases in particular benefit from Katy’s high degree of skill in challenging complex expert evidence.
She has a very strong reputation in cases of serious violence related to organised crime (e.g. R v E, a drug trafficking-related murder; and R v G, an armed robbery murder).
She also has experience of terrorism prosecutions having represented both perpetrators and those accused of funding serious terrorism.
Katy’s early training in business, insurance, and banking gives her a particular affinity for and understanding of both the business world and the criminal courts. Her ability to assimilate large amounts of technical information and challenge expert reports in fields as diverse as cell site analysis, ISIS funding and forensic accounting mean that she is an excellent choice in money laundering and fraud cases as well as in large-scale drugs conspiracies. Recent financial cases have included the Premier League’s private prosecution of a multinational football streaming conspiracy; a Trading Standards prosecution; a large-scale VAT fraud; and Hawala banking money laundering.
Katy has extensive experience with conviction and sentence appeals in the Court of Appeal and with the Criminal Cases Review Commission, and her enviable success rate means she is frequently instructed by the most respected appeal firms. She takes on a range of second opinion cases, from murder and rape convictions and has a particular interest in IPPs. She is also frequently instructed to review baby abuse murder convictions and historic sex allegations.
Katy represented Arthur Hutchinson in Hutchinson v United Kingdom (2015) in the European Court of Human Rights in relation to Whole Life Terms. She has been involved in a number of guideline cases.
Katy’s inquest work has become a larger part of her practice in recent years, allowing her to combine her vast experience of cross-examination and investigations into deaths in custody, at work, and in hospital settings with her fabulous advocacy and exceptional judgment to superb effect.
Recent instructions have included deaths on construction sites, in psychiatric hospitals and prisons, road traffic accidents, including those involving police pursuit, and suspected suicides questioned by the family as possible homicide.
She is an Assistant Coroner and a First Tier Tribunal Judge (Mental Health). The combination of these roles provides Katy with unique insight to better advise her inquest and criminal clients.
