One of the UK\’s best murder barristers

A multi-handed revenge attack that led to a stabbing outside a nightclub. The defendant was extradited from Canada to face trial.

Appeared as leading junior in a conspiracy to murder. This was the high profile ‘Angolan Witchcraft’ case tried at the Old Bailey where the defendants were accused of torturing and then placing an eight year old girl in a bag and threatening to drown her in a river. This was investigated by the police unit set up after the ‘Torso in the Thames case’ and has been the subject of a number of television documentaries.

A bungled contract killing where the defendant was the driver of the vehicle in a drive by shooting. It was suspected that the victim, who was shot in front of his 6 year old daughter and two year old son outside his parents address, was in fact the brother of the intended target. The defendant attempted to burn out the vehicle used but the fire did not take hold and his DNA was found in the vehicle. This case featured on the BBC’s Crimewatch programme and the gunman remains at large.

Two days after the shooting of PC Beshenivsky in Bradford her murderer Muzzaker Shah left a council estate in South London where he had been in hiding to travel to Wales. He was assisted by the defendant who with another drove him to Wales. The defendant then rented premises and stayed with Shah for nearly two weeks before the Police laid siege to the flat. After nearly 24 hours the defendant convinced Shah to surrender. A great deal of the Crown’s case relied upon cell site evidence.

This involved the contract killing of a well known member of the criminal underworld. It was suspected that this was the latest murder connected to the ongoing disputes and fallout from the Brinks Mat gold bullion case. The case rested almost entirely on cell site evidence and the defendant’s DNA found on a cigarette butt at the scene.

An 87 year old cab driver was violently assaulted and knocked to the ground by the defendant who then stole his taxi. The defendant did a three point turn and ran over the victim as he lay prone in the road. He later burnt out the car in an alley behind his house and claimed to have no memory of the incident due to alcohol. Stephen Vullo conducted the cross-examination of the experts giving evidence as to alcohol back calculation and the effects of alcohol on the ability to form intent and the memory.

The victim was lured to a country lane and shot by a masked gunman with a sten gun. He was in front of his wife and child. The execution was ordered due to a drug related debt. The defendant was one of four defendants and was said to be the getaway driver for his close friend Wayne Collins who was the gunman. The defendant was acquitted after a 3 month trial at the Central Criminal Court. The other 3 defendants were convicted and received life sentences with minimum terms of 33-30 years. The trial involved a wealth of expert evidence from the usual DNA, fingerprints and cell site analysis to the more unusual of a use of a palynology expert (pollen and plant analysis).

Leading counsel in the trial and retrial. The client opted to remain in custody for an additional 6 months to wait for a date when Stephen was available. The Crown’s case was that the murder was a drugs killing. It involved the challenging of DNA, call data, cell site, fibres and blood splatter evidence.

The defendant was charged with 4 others with conspiracy to murder. The Crown alleged that the savage attack on the victim by two men with kitchen knives was well planned after significant reconnaissance.