Leigh Hart

Overview

Leigh joined Chambers as a tenant in March 2021 and enjoys a busy criminal practice at 2 King’s Bench Walk, prosecuting and defending in a broad range of cases including as junior counsel and on her own.

Prior to joining Chambers, Leigh was a Crown Advocate at CPS Wessex, having been promoted swiftly after completing pupillage with the CPS. Leigh is now a Grade 3 Prosecutor and Pupil Supervisor, and is regularly instructed to prosecute Crown Court trials from an early stage in proceedings. This includes providing advice and working with the CPS and police, to ensure that each case is fully prepared for trial.

Leigh’s work as junior counsel has involved serious sexual offences, child abuse, fraud, drugs supply and organised crime. Leigh has therefore developed good understanding of complex areas of law, including admissibility, disclosure, abuse of process, and PII.

Leigh has been instructed to defend clients charged with serious offences, including making threats to kill, robbery, serious assault and dishonesty offences. Leigh is a confident and meticulous advocate. She has a reputation for being able to put clients and witnesses at ease, offering concise advice and can explain complex points of law in a way which is simple and easy to understand.

Outside of court, Leigh is a martial artist and a semi-professional kickboxing and Muay Thai fighter.

Crime

Recent Cases

• R v K and Others (2024) – Prosecution Junior in multi-defendant courier fraud involving defendants who impersonated police officers, targeting elderly victims and convincing them to hand over large sums of cash and jewellery.

• R v S, S and M (2024) – Prosecution counsel in a trial involving conspiracy to steal high value vehicles, involving cell site evidence, call data and ANPR.

• R v C (2024) – Instructed as prosecution counsel in a case involving domestic violence and allegations of controlling and coercive behaviour. The complainant’s lengthy video recorded interview with the police led to advice being provided to the Crown, further charges being added, and resulted in guilty pleas ahead of trial.

• R v P (2024) – Prosecution counsel in a case where a defendant with significant mental health difficulties faced charges concerning supply of Class A, namely crystal meth.

• R v H (2024) – instructed as defence counsel in a case involving allegations of domestic violence, where the Crown intended to adduce a non-supportive complainant’s evidence through res gestae principles. Successful application to exclude the evidence resulted in the Crown offering no evidence to all charges.

• R v T and P (2024) – Prosecution counsel in a trial involving a revenge attack stabbing, where the defendants plotted to assault the complainant, attempted to dispose of the evidence, and sought to blame each other at trial.

• R v K and Others (2023) – Instructed as junior counsel in a multi-defendant case spread across multiple case files. The case involved a group of males involved in serious violence and county lines drugs supply.

• R v P and D (2023) – prosecution counsel in a multi-defendant case involving county lines drugs supply, where one defendant alleged that his co-defendant had exploited him and raised modern slavery as a defence.

• R v B (2023) – instructed as prosecution counsel in a case involving a defendant who had defrauded his elderly mother over a five-year period. A hearsay application was made to adduce the mother’s evidence as she no longer lacked capacity at the time of trial.

• R v D and T (2023) – Instructed as prosecution junior in a multi-defendant, multi-complainant case involving historic rape and child cruelty.

R v P and Others (2023) – Prosecution counsel in a multi-defendant home invasion robbery where the defence for all defendants was mistaken identity

• R v M (2023) – Instructed at a late stage as trial counsel for a county lines drugs case involving significant phone evidence, cell site evidence, legal argument, and disclosure.

•R v K and Others (2022) – Represented a vulnerable and young female defendant in a three-handed trial involving allegations of robbery and assault.

• R v F (2022) – Successfully defending a client at trial involving allegations of serious assault, making threats to kill and racially aggravated offences.

• R v B (2022) – Instructed at a late stage to prosecute a case involving firearms and drugs offences. Successful applications regarding admissibility, character and exceptional circumstances following guilty pleas.

• R v S and M (2022) – Successfully prosecuted a case involving a revenge attack stabbing in Reading in broad daylight. The initial trial collapsed and led to further charges, following a successful incident of witness intimidation relating to the stabbing.

BA (Hons) – Politics, Kingston University

GDL – University of Brighton

BPTC LLM – University of Law

Criminal Bar Association

Western Circuit