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Sean is ranked by the Legal 500 as a Rising Star in Crime and Fraud for 2025.

Sean specialises in crime, human rights, and international criminal law.

Sean represents clients charged with serious criminal offences including terrorism, serious violence, drug supply & importation, historic sexual offences, and human trafficking.

Sean is increasingly sought after in serious fraud cases, instructed in complex matters involving substantial sums of money. 

Sean also welcomes international law instructions. He holds a doctorate in International Criminal Law, lectures university students on the substantive and procedural aspects of international law, and is on the list of Approved Assistants to Counsel at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Sean has been praised by the Court of Appeal for his “sterling and commendable work”, and for handling clients with “care and the highest standards”. He has been described by solicitors as their “first-choice” and praised for his “exceptional skill and diligence on each and every occasion”.

Before coming to the Bar, Sean was with the Foreign Office, negotiating on behalf of the United Kingdom in the Council of the European Union. Based in Brussels for five years, he also worked as a Political Advisor in the European Parliament and within the Cabinet of a European Commissioner.  He also worked at the ICC during the Lubanga war crimes trial, as well as with the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency, and human rights organisations based in Cambodia and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

What the directories say

“Sean is extremely thorough in his preparation and is excellent in his client care.  He can make difficult arguments in court and challenge the prosecution. He deals particularly well with family members who are distraught at the proceedings and is meticulous in his legal arguments and attention to detail.” – Legal 500, 2025

Crime

Led Junior

  • R v AM and Others – 2024 (Sheffield Crown Court) – Operation Novel.  Led in a multi-handed VAT fraud, involving the use of rebated fuel and the evasion of tax spanning multiple haulage companies.  

  • R v AM and Others – 2023 (Winchester Crown Court) – Operation Cavalier. Led in a multi-handed firearms case on behalf of the lead defendant, who is alleged to have travelled to the home of a rival family and discharged a shotgun in the course of violent disorder.

  • R v M and Others – 2022 (Leicester Crown Court) – Operation Gearbox. Secured a unanimous acquittal after a nine-week trial, in a conspiracy involving the acquisition of stolen car parts for international exportation on an industrial scale – the value of which stretched into many millions of pounds. Case involving over 1000 pages of witness statements and circa 300,000 pages of evidence.

  • R v M and Others – 2021 (St Albans Crown Court) – Operation Topaz. Led junior in a class A drugs conspiracy involving the large-scale supply of Cocaine throughout England. The case involved analysis of data from encrypted EncroChat mobile phones, and drug supply valued at many millions of pounds.

 Junior Alone

  • R v A – 2024 (Manchester Crown Court) – Arrested on Terrorism charges having been found with a backpack containing a machete and zombie-style knife, the defendant strangled the interviewing officer while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’.  The case was listed at the Old Bailey before being sent to Manchester. Reported here.

  • R v K – 2024 (Croydon Crown Court) – The defendant was first on an indictment charging three people with aggravated burglary.  He was said to have forced entry wearing a balaclava and held a knife to the complainant’s throat, before ransacking her property and stealing her belongings.  The defendant was acquitted of all counts after a 7-day trial.

  • R v A – 2024 (St Albans Crown Court) – The defendant was charged with conspiring with others to defraud elderly and vulnerable people of their savings in a sophisticated courier fraud.  The defendant was acquitted at the end of a 2-week trial.  One co-defendant pleaded guilty before the close of the Crown’s case and another was convicted by the jury. 

  • R v C – 2024 (Maidstone Crown Court) – The defendant was charged with GBH following a revenge attack on a fellow member of the travelling community.  Various pieces of key evidence were excluded following legal argument, and the defendant was acquitted by a jury within the hour. 

  • R v C – 2024 (Southwark Crown Court) – The defendant, an independent journalist, was arrested during the Covid-19 protests and charged with assaulting two police officers.  After 4 days of evidence and careful examination of footage from the scene, he was acquitted of both counts.

  • R v K – 2024 (Inner London Crown Court) – The defendant was charged with fraudulently processing transactions for gold bullion as part of a fraud valued in excess of £1.3 million.  He was acquitted after a 12-day trial.

  • R v R – 2023 (Birmingham Crown Court) – Currently instructed in a large-scale conspiracy to import and supply class A and class B drugs.

  • R v A – 2023 (Kingston-Upon Thames Crown Court) – A case involving allegations of historic sexual assault over a number of years, beginning when the child was young as 5 years old, committed within a domestic context.

  • R v M and Others – 2023 (Nottingham Crown Court) – Currently instructed in a multi-handed fraud, the defendants accused of defrauding HMRC of undeclared income in excess of £8,000,000.

  • R v L and Others – 2022 (Stratford Youth Court) – Represented a vulnerable young defendant with significant mental health issues at trial, accused of possession of an imitation firearm with intent to rob.

  • R v R and Others – 2022 (Southampton Crown Court) – GBH trial of four defendants, after the complainant was hospitalised with serious injuries. The GBH count was thrown out following halftime submissions, and a Not Guilty verdict returned by the jury on the alternative ABH count. R ran ‘defence of another’ and was the only defendant to be acquitted of all charges following trial.

  • R v M – 2022 (Maidstone Crown Court) – Successful after Newton Hearing, with 70 cannabis plants seized from three grow-rooms in the defendant’s property held to be cultivated for personal use. Case involving expert evidence on the gender and viability of the plants. The defendant avoided a custodial sentence.

  • R v A and Others – 2021 (Gloucester Crown Court) – Conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine across the west of England and Midlands, to the value of over half a million pounds. The case involved extensive cell-site data and mobile phone evidence.

  • R v AL and Others – 2020 (Canterbury Crown Court) – Facilitating illegal immigration case in which earlier guilty pleas were vacated following legal argument, and Not Guilty verdicts were entered in their place. This followed shortly after the leading case of R v Kakaei [2021] EWCA Crim 503.