David Wood

"He excels more senior counsel in capability, and is pleasant and professional too." "Highly capable, tenacious, and at ease with clients and on his feet."

David specialises in criminal and regulatory law and is recognised as a leading individual in both of these fields in the Legal 500 and Chambers UK. Professional feedback in those directories consistently describes him as an excellent jury advocate, persuasive, tenacious, tactical, hard-working and approachable. He combines a genuine flair for advocacy with a common-sense approach and a dedication to careful preparation, fostered by a year at Bindmans LLP before coming to the Bar.

In criminal law, David has particular expertise in defending cases of serious violence, major and international drug trafficking, sexual offences, and fraud. In regulatory law he frequently conducts hearings before the General Medical Council, Nursing and Midwifery Council and Police Misconduct tribunals. In 2021-2022 he was junior Counsel for two significant individual Core Participants in the Manchester Arena Inquiry.

David is a Governing Bencher of the Inner Temple and a member of its Advocacy Training Committee, regularly teaching advocacy to younger barristers. He is a former Secretary of the Criminal Bar Association and played a significant role in the development and delivery of the inaugural Bar Council Leadership Programme. In 2022, he was made a Recorder of the Crown Court.

David can accept instructions on a Direct Public Access basis.

Appointments

Recorder, Northern Circuit (2022)

Publications

The Law of Public Order and Protest, 2010, OUP (Research credit)

Professional Memberships

Criminal Bar Association
South Eastern Circuit
Association of Regulatory and Disciplinary Lawyers (ARDL)
Lawyers for Liberty
Release
Fraud Lawyers Association

Education, Scholarships and Awards

MA (Oxon) (Worcester College, Oxford)
Diploma in Law (BPP Manchester)
Bar Vocational Course (BPP London)
Winner, BPP London Mooting Competition 2007
Peta Fordham prize

Reported and Notable Appellate Cases

R v Walker et al [2023] EWCA Crim 707 - successful resistance of an Attorney General's reference where David's client had received a sentence of only 27 months imprisonment for an attempt to pervert the course of a jury trial.
R v Gurney [2022] EWCA Crim 1331 - Attorney General’s Reference in a conspiracy to produce amphetamine – the Court noted that there was no previously reported case involving amphetamine production of this scale.
R v ZM [2019] EWCA Crim 1532 - Successful renewal of permission for leave to appeal sentence following guilty pleas to dealing Class A drugs. Sentence reduced from 8 years 4 months to 6 years 9 months.
R v G [2016] 4 WLR 185, [2016] EWCA Crim 1633 - One of the key authorities since the Ched Evans litigation on the application of s41 Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 (admissibility of evidence relating to previous sexual behaviour)
R v Hyde [2014] EWCA Crim 713 and [2012] EWCA Crim 1113 - This case involved an allegation of illegal brokering of an international arms deal for 80,000 guns and 32m rounds of ammunition, shipped between China and Nigeria. The first trial resulted in a successful submission of no case to answer, later reversed by Court of Appeal. After the retrial, David as junior Counsel then took (and won) a novel point on the correct interpretation of the forfeiture provisions of the Firearms Act 1968.
AG Ref 32 of 2013 [2013] EWCA Crim 1202 - The Attorney General referred the sentence of Billy Duggan (for whom David had been junior Counsel at trial) to the Court of Appeal as being unduly lenient. David, acting alone, successfully resisted that application, with the Court finding that this was an exceptional case where the Defendant could be spared imprisonment.

Serious and Grave Crime

R v CC - Leading Counsel for defendant charged with multiple counts of possessing loaded firearms and conspiracies to supply cocaine and cannabis. Acquitted by the jury.
R v HS - attempted murder trial following a shooting in Birmingham. The case turned on the proper application of joint enterprise principles; David's client was acquitted by the jury.
R v A - multi-handed kidnap allegation. The Defence was that the complainant was pretending to be kidnapped and assaulted in order to receive money himself. Acquitted by the jury.
R v BSE - David was junior Counsel in this highly unusual prosecution for murder where the violence underpinning the indictment took place in 2002, but the victim did not die until 2017. Additional complication arose from the fact that the Defendant was 81 at the time the case would have been tried, following contested fitness to plead proceedings. After much negotiation the Prosecution accepted a plea to manslaughter by provocation, and the Defendant received a suspended sentence – extremely unusual for an allegation of homicide.
R v RW - A genuinely extraordinary case involving allegations under the Explosive Substances Act 1883, Poisons Act 1972 and Chemical Weapons Act 1996. David was junior Counsel in this case, at the end of which the Defendant was acquitted of all 27 counts on the trial indictment.
R v DC -Successful defence to soliciting murder where a respected GP was accused of trying to hire a hitman to kill an independent financial advisor whom he blamed for poor advice; the case had a high media profile (see for example here).
R v EI - Successful defence of young man accused, with several others, of manslaughter following a fight near Turnpike Lane tube station which resulted in a fatal stabbing.
R v S - Successful defence to soliciting murder in a case that threw into sharp relief the difficulties in interpreting 19^th century statute in the internet age. The Defendant had posted messages on a website on the ‘dark web’ inviting the murder of his new born child, allegedly to avoid CSA payments. David argued that an auto-response generated by the website was not sufficient for conviction; his client was acquitted.
R v C - The defendant in this case admitted attempted murder. Following David’s mitigation the sentencing Judge very significantly reduced the starting point before credit for guilty plea and in the event passed a sentence of only 9 years.
R v O’Brien - David was sole Counsel for the first defendant of 14. This was an international conspiracy to steal items made of rhinoceros horn and priceless jade artefacts from British museums, with a total value of somewhere between £20M and £57M. The case was widely reported at its conclusion – see for example here.

Drugs

R v PH - Sole counsel for second defendant of 6 – conspiracy to supply over 30kg of cocaine and produce over 100kg of amphetamine.
R v Baltais - Sole Counsel for first defendant of 10 – conspiracy to import 13kg of cocaine and heroin from Belgium to the United Kingdom.
R v Van Doesburg - This case alleged the importation of 108kg of cocaine into the UK, valued at £16.2M, secreted in the rudder-trunking area of a coal tanker that had crossed the Atlantic from Columbia. The Crown’s case was that the Defendant was part of a team assembled to recover the drugs using underwater diving equipment and a specially adapted inflatable boat, and attracted national media interest by virtue of its description as a ‘James Bond style’ plot. An example may be found here. David acted as junior Counsel in this case and his client was acquitted by the jury.

Sexual Offences

R v N - Allegation of rape against a personal trainer by a client. Acquitted by the jury.
R v NG - Sole Counsel for Defendant alleged to have engaged in sexual activity with a 15 year old boy after meeting him in an online chatroom. Acquitted by the jury.
R v PM - Sole Counsel for former Police Officer accused of historic sexual offending against a then 15 year old girl.
R v CA - Successful application to dismiss a charge of controlling a person under 18 in prostitution. David’s client was himself a vulnerable young person; the Court accepted the argument that the proper interpretation of s49(1) Sexual Offences Act 2003 meant that he had no case to answer (although the case of three other men proceeded to trial).
R v C - The Defendant in this case was charged with three counts of historical rape against two different young girls. David was instructed as junior Counsel specifically to oppose an application whereby the Crown sought to use, as bad character, evidence of the complaint of a third girl; that opposition was successful.
R v A - The Defendant was charged with sexual assault and ABH in what was, effectively, an attempted rape on a vulnerable woman in the Defendant’s own home. Acquitted.

Financial Crime / POCA

R v Kelly – junior Counsel for first Defendant in a £21M conspiracy to defraud. David conducted a substantial amount of the trial advocacy in this case which was brought by the FCA and prosecuted by two King’s Counsel.
R v Akpojaro – sole Counsel for fourth defendant in a ‘boiler room’ conspiracy to defraud prosecuted by the FCA, with losses to investors alleged at £1.2M
R v Z - Leading Counsel for defendant alleged to be a significant part of a very substantial fraud on HSBC’s telephone banking system.
R v De Salles & Others - Allegation of money laundering totalling £10M via money service bureaux. David was junior Counsel and his client was acquitted by the jury after a three and a half month trial.
R v K - Allegation against nine defendants of professional money laundering to a value of approximately £10m, with complicated issues of territorial jurisdiction and joint enterprise offending in the context of an inchoate offence. The Defendant was acquitted at the Judge’s direction after a successful submission of no case to answer; David was junior Counsel and drafted the written part of the successful submission.

GMP v PC A – defence of Police Constable alleged to have engaged in sexual activity with a junior female colleague. Allegation of abuse of position defeated and facts found essentially on the basis of the officer’s admissions, although sexual activity taking place on duty was fatal to the officer’s career.
SRA v DP – defence of a solicitor referred to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal following conviction at trial for an offence under the Sexual Offences Act.
GDC v MdM- David presented this case for the GDC against a dentist who had been practising without indemnity insurance. Following detailed submissions on the proper approach to impairment in such situations, the Registrant was erased from the register.
GMC v MD – ‘pre-charge’ assistance provided to a doctor alleged to have committed plagiarism during his academic study. The GMC took no further action after detailed early written representations drafted by David.
GMC v JS – misconduct proceedings against a doctor following their conviction for possessing indecent images.
GMC v MGS – health committee proceedings for doctor attempting to return to practice whilst themselves suffering from complicated mental health issues.
GMP v PCG – successful defence of a Police Constable in misconduct proceedings where the officer was alleged to have used excessive force and fractured the elbow of someone he was arresting.
NMC v C - David’s client was alleged to have contributed to the death of a patient who suffered a post-operative bleed subsequent to a hernia operation, where warning signs were not appreciated by nursing staff until too late. A submission of no case to answer was upheld on the contribution to death charge (despite evidence from a consultant surgeon as to causation), and no misconduct found in relation to admitted less serious documentary failings.