Kelly Brocklehurst

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Overview

Kelly specialises in complex and serious criminal offences, particularly those involving terrorism, homicide, organised crime, firearms and large-scale drugs supply. He is a former Royal Marine and a current Treasury Counsel Monitoree.

Kelly is regularly instructed in sensitive and high-profile cases, most often as either leading counsel or as a led junior. He has appeared in some of the most serious and significant terrorism cases in recent years, including the prosecutions of radical preacher Anjem Choudary, the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber, Hashem Abedi, and the Oxford Street bomb plotter, Lewis Ludlow. He has particular expertise in matters involving sensitive material and procedures, and of cases which involve extraterritorial jurisdictional issues. He is experienced in working with a range of investigative agencies and government departments for which he holds a high level of security clearance. In addition to trial work, he is often instructed to advise at the pre-charge stage and frequently appears in appellate proceedings.

Kelly also advises and represents private individuals charged with regulatory or criminal offences, including matters arising from police misconduct hearings and Court Martial proceedings. He has experience of assisting those being prosecuted in their professional capacity, or for whom an adverse finding will have significant professional repercussions. He has provided advice in the commercial sector and is able to combine his knowledge of criminal law with an understanding and appreciation of corporate structures and commercial concerns.

Crime

R v WS & Ors (2025 – ongoing) – led junior prosecuting three defendants involved in preparing to launch a terrorist attack within the UK.

R v RD & Ors (2025 – ongoing) – leading junior prosecuting eight defendants accused of participating in organised criminal activity concerned with the arrangement and facilitation of unlawful immigration into the UK.

R v VT (2024) – junior alone instructed by the British Indian Ocean Territory to prosecute a Sri Lankan national in criminal proceedings before the territory’s Supreme Court.

R v AC & KH (2024) – led by First Senior Treasury Counsel in the prosecution of Anjem Choudary and Khalid Hussein in a high-profile terrorism case. Choudary was only the second person to be successfully prosecuted for an offence of directing a terrorist organisation and received a life sentence with a minimum term of 28 years.

R v AA & Others (2024) – leading junior in the prosecution of eleven defendants charged with drug importation and money laundering offences arising from the activities of an organised criminal gang. This criminal enterprise concerned the movement of around 1400kg of cocaine and £10 million in cash.

R v GH & Ors (2023 – ongoing) – led junior prosecuting three defendants in allegations of bribery involving the corruption of overseas officials and government ministers for commercial gain in the mining industry.

R v HQ and Others (2022-2023) – leading counsel prosecuting four defendants charged with conspiring to assist unlawful immigration. This case concerned systematic people smuggling by an organised crime group spanning the UK and Europe.

R v RG and Others (2022-2023) – leading counsel prosecuting four defendants charged with conspiring to import 280 kg of cocaine hidden inside shipping containers.

R v FP and Others (2023) – first junior prosecuting eight defendants accused of bribing a police officer dubbed by the media as the ‘Sheriff of Soho’.

R v HC (2021) – led junior prosecuting a defendant charged with being a member of the so-called Islamic State and funding terrorism. The case involved the use of bitcoin transfers conducted across a number of countries in order to funnel proceeds into the so-called Islamic State.

R v HA (2020) – second junior led by First Senior Treasury Counsel prosecuting Hashem Abedi for twenty-two counts of murder arising from his involvement in the bombing of the Manchester Arena in 2017.

R v AJ (2019) – led by First Senior Treasury Counsel in the prosecution of a fighter who had attended training camps in Iraq and Syria before returning to the UK.

R v K & A (2019) – led junior prosecuting two defendants accused of distributing terrorist publications via a website that supported the so-called Islamic State and promoted the sermons of radical extremist preacher Abdullah el-Fasial.

R v L (2019) – led by First Senior Treasury Counsel in the prosecution of Lewis Ludlow, who made plans to launch a terrorist attack against Madame Tussauds and pedestrians in Oxford Street.

R v K (2019) – led junior prosecuting a defendant who was paid to conduct denial of service (DDoS) attacks against a telecoms provider and did so on such a large scale that his actions resulted in taking a whole African state offline.