Nicholas Lumley KC and James Bourne-Arton KC secure acquittal in Operation Satchel

Nicholas Lumley KC and James Bourne-Arton KC assisted by Danielle Graham (St Paul’s Chambers) have secured the acquittal of their client charged in Operation Satchel.  Seventeen other Defendants were convicted or found to have done the alleged act.

Nicholas Lumley KC successfully argued before the Court of Appeal that the conviction at the initial trial was unsafe.

James Bourne-Arton KC, leading Danielle Graham, successfully argued in the retrial that the case should be stopped at the close of the prosecution case as it had been demonstrated that the key witness was unreliable.  It is a rare example of a judge withdrawing the case from a jury on the grounds of witness credibility.

The Defendant was alleged to have been one of nineteen individuals who had conspired to sexually assault and penetrate several different children.  Before the successful appeal the case was described by the West Midlands Chief Crown Prosecutor in the following terms:

“The 19 offenders convicted in Operation Satchel perpetrated the most abhorrent catalogue of systematic sexual abuse on seven children. The scale, depravity and deeply disturbing nature of which is unlike anything I have seen during my time working for the CPS and has shocked everyone who has been involved in bringing them to justice”

For their client this verdict brings an end to an eight-year ordeal during which he kept faith with Nicholas Lumley KC and James Bourne-Arton KC throughout and this faith has been finally rewarded.

They were instructed and assisted in this case by Eric Watson at Watson Woodhouse solicitors.

Authors

Nicholas Lumley KC

Joint Head of Chambers

Call 1992 | Silk 2012

James Bourne-Arton KC

Call 2001 | Silk 2024

Related areas

Crime

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