Emma Goodall QC and David Rhodes secure the acquittal of their client of both murder and manslaughter

Emma Goodall QC and David Rhodes, instructed by Nora Talbi of EBR Attridge LLP, today secured the acquittal of their client KB on charges of murder and manslaughter after a ‘cut-throat’ trial lasting seven weeks at the Crown Court at Basildon.

The case concerned the fatal stabbing of PF in the early hours of New Year’s Day during a house party. The first defendant, HS, was the girlfriend of the deceased. The second defendant, KB was her friend. Each defendant went into the trial asserting that the other woman had been responsible for the single stab wound to the heart.

The case was very hard fought between the two defendants who were once friends, now running cut-throat defences. The trial saw almost every legal issue, from detailed pathology evidence involving three experts to legal arguments over the admissibility of res gestae utterances made at the scene; whether intercepted prison phone calls were subject to legal professional privilege; and multiple cross-cutting bad character applications.

The weight of evidence deployed strongly suggested that the first defendant had delivered the fatal blow. As a result of which, during cross-examination the first defendant dramatically admitted that she had stabbed the deceased and changed her defence to one of accident.

The jury delivered majority verdicts today, finding the first defendant guilty of murder but Emma and David’s client, KB, not guilty of both murder and manslaughter.