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James Keeley

Year of Call:

1993

Education:

LLB (Hons) Law

LLM Employment Law and Relations

Career:

Called to the Bar 1993

Judicial Assistant (including trials of Brent Walker with HHJ Geoffrey Rivlin QC and Maxwell with Lord Phillips).

Maxwell with Lord Phillips.  This case has set the standard for fraud trials with its use of technology and the so-called Maxwell hours.

Mr Keeley sat on the bench throughout both trials and helped both Judges prepare their summing-ups.

Serafinowicz - the first ever War Crimes Trial and the appeal of the Bridgewater Four.  In Serafinowicz, Mr Keeley was noting Junior during the trial to both Sir John Nutting QC and the then Solicitor General, Sir Derek Spencer QC.  In Bridgewater, Mr Keeley assisted Alun Jones QC in going through Vincent Hickey's interviews in order to assess whether or not there had been any irregularities.

CPS Level 3 prosecutor

Rape, Incest & Indecent Assault

Mr. Keeley specialises in cases of a sensitive nature and has considerable experience in both prosecuting and defending such matters.  Mr. Keeley is therefore fully conversant with special measures directions, applications for social services records and PII applications. Through his experience of these cases Mr. Keeley is acutely aware of the need for continuity of counsel and whenever possible when prosecuting sensitive cases to introduce himself to victims before the trial begins. 

Mr. Keeley has completed the Sexual offences seminar that all Counsel who wish to prosecute such cases have to complete. 

 Appeared in the Court of Appeal on an Attorney General’s Reference in respect of an abuse of trust case where a step father had consensual sexual relations with his step-daughter (section 25 Sexual Offences Act 2003)
 Appeared for the Prosecution in the Court of Appeal in relation to an appeal against sentence in a Rape case.
 Appeared in a Stated Case in the High Court. The  Prosecution appealed the decision of a Youth Court where it had acquitted a teenager of a sexual assault 
 Defending an 18 year old,  Chinese national who attempted to rape another Chinese national

Violence

Mr. Keeley has vast experience in prosecuting and defending all matters of violence from Murder, Violent Disorder and section 18 assaults to Common Assault.

 Murder (shooting).
 Murder (The killing of an alleged paedophile)
 Attempted Murder (Grandmother attacked with a hook by her grandson. The victim fit and healthy beforehand left totally incapacitated by the attack)
 Attempted Murder. An 82 year old man allegedly being beaten with a hammer in his own home (Defending)
 Prosecuted  4 children, the youngest being 13 for attempting to cause Grievous Bodily Harm on a 15 year old with a mental age of 8. The victim was lured to some woods where he was stripped, beaten unconscious, laid in a make shift grave and urinated upon. Mr. Keeley worked alone with the Officer in the Case ensuring that all additional work for trial was done. This case generated a large amount of national media interest. Mr. Keeley rejected the Defence pleas of assault occasioning actual bodily harm leaving the Defence to finally offer pleas to the Indictment that he drafted of Attempt to Cause Grievous Bodily Harm on the day of trial.

Drugs and Customs Offences

Mr. Keeley has prosecuted and defended many individuals who have had drugs of Class A and B in their possession with intent to supply.

 Entrapment. Mr. Keeley was asked to advise several clients in Hull, arising out of a major police operation, in respect of their chances of running the defence of entrapment in line with the European case of Teixeira de Castro v. Portugal.
 Mr. Keeley was led in a case whereby over a million pounds worth of heroin was found in Bradford.
 Defending a man in possession of a large quantity of firearms and heroin, worth in the region of £150,000.
 Mr. Keeley led another junior barrister in defending the mastermind behind a series of crack cocaine houses in Chapeltown. This was a major Conspiracy case with voluminous documentation involving six defendants in all.

Following on from his experience of Fraud early on in his career Mr. Keeley continues to develop his practice in this area. In the last year he has been instructed by the Department of Work and Pensions and the NHS to prosecute large and complicated frauds. The cases have involved people claiming benefits whilst not declaring they were living with another working partner, those claiming benefits whilst working and those claiming benefits who have substantial savings and capita:       

 Leading another advocate in a multi-million pound conspiracy to defraud elderly people.

 Being led in a four week Conspiracy to Defraud trial in Newcastle. Two Company Directors (Rowland and Wrightson) were involved in hiring cheap labour from the Newcastle area and transporting them to Northumbria where they worked cleaning caravans. The cheap labour that they were hiring was claiming benefits and not declaring its earnings. Subsequent to the two Directors’ convictions there was now a confiscation hearing involving one million and three hundred thousand pounds.

James has recently appeared on Radio 4, Women’s Hour, where he discussed anonymity in Rape Cases.

For further information please contact Yvonne Crosbie on 0113 202 8603 or Zoe Malir on 0113 202 8602.