Young Street Chambers
76 Quay Street, Spinningfields
Manchester M3 4PR
Tel: 0161 833 0489
Fax: 0161 835 3938
DX: 25583 Manchester 5
Email: clerks@young-st-chambers.com


Benjamin Myers

back to list Benjamin Myers

Benjamin Myers

Call to the bar 1994 Inner Temple
Areas of practice crime

public and administrative law

human rights

Education BA (Hons), University of Leeds

LLM, International and European Human Rights Law, University of Leeds

Profile PRACTICE

  • Serious and complex criminal law, instructed by defence and prosecution; murder, fraud, drug trafficking, national and international organized crime, anti-terrorism legislation, money laundering and hearings under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, rape, historic sexual abuse, armed robbery, wide experience of appellate matters.
  • Public law – judicial review relating to criminal law, police powers, mental health, prison law.
  • Human rights – criminal law, prison law and actions under the Human Rights Act 1998.

EXPERIENCE

Benjamin Myers lectures other legal professionals on criminal law and human rights and is a tutor in the protection of rights in international law at the University of Leeds.  He is a former Junior of the Northern Circuit and features in Chambers Guide to the UK Legal Profession as a leading junior in crime on the Northern Circuit. He is a member of the Criminal Bar Association and JUSTICE and a member of the Law Reform Committee of the Bar Council.

Notable Cases Include:   

  • R v Niem Mohammed: faith healer prosecuted for multiple offences of deception, fraud and blackmail.  A case raising complex cultural issues.
  • R v Cooke and others: ‘gangland killing’ of businessman whose partially burnt body was discovered in a field in Cumbria
  • R v Khan and others: ‘honor killing’ by professional hitman
  • R v Parker and others: importation of illegal firearms into UK from overseas.  These included handguns, silencers and ammunition concealed in a motor vehicle and brought into the UK from Eastern Europe
  • R v Khaliq: rape and child prostitution
  • R v Kerrigan: violent rape of a student by a defendant suffering serious psychiatric abnormalities, raising complex psychiatric and neuropsychiatric issues
  • R v Foster: triple death by dangerous driving by young man of good character
  • R v Service: the defendant was indicted with attempted murder after discharging five shots from a pistol in the centre of Leeds in the early hours of the morning of New Years’ Day
  • R v Wilson and others: laundering of proceeds of drug trafficking.  This raised the question of the statistical significance of mass spectrometry evidence
  • R v Nuren: a conspiracy to defraud the driving standards agency that ran for eighteen months, in which the defendant and other impersonated driving test candidates to obtain driving test passes
  • R v Conteh: the defendant was one of six men charged with a gang rape.  In the light of the complainant’s internet chat messages the prosecution offered no evidence
  • R v Lees and others: multi-million pound drugs importation by defendant who was a high profile figure in Northern Irish politics and business
  • R v Evans and others: murder of a nightclub doorman, lured to a park in Greater Manchester

 

Reported Cases Include: 

  • R v Bevan [1999] EWCA Crim 2172 - where disparity in sentence in objectionable
  • R v Rashford [2005] EWCA Crim 3377 - murder; extension of circumstances encompassing self-defence
  • Benson, R (on the application of) v Secretary of State for Justice [2007] EWHC Admin 2055 - impact of Article 5 and common law due process when considering alleged breach of home detention curfew
Email bmyers@young-st-chambers.com
Clerk David Blunsden
Print this page Print this page
Benjamin Myers RSS Feed

Subscribe to our news feed

Recent news

July 30th, 2010

richard-dawson49x49Richard Dawson defended John Christie at Liverpool Crown Court (HHJ Clifton).  Christie was charged with causing death by careless driving.  The deceased was an 83 year old lady, Mrs Jean Kirby.  Mr Christie was triumphantly acquitted on 28 July by the unanimous verdict of the jury.  Read more

July 19th, 2010

ahmed-nadim49x49

R v. Magro and Others – On the 8 July 2010 the Court of Appeal, of a five judge constitution, delivered a judgement implicitly disagreeing with the reasoning and the decision of a three judge constitution in R v. Clarke [2009] EWCA Crim 1074.  However, in deference to the doctrine of precedence, the Court declared itself bound by the decision in Clarke, leaving it to the Supreme Court to consider if Clarke was wrongly decided.

The Court of Appeal’s reasoning in Magro clearly suggested that a confiscation order under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 may be made at the time of making an order of Conditional or Absolute Discharge.

July 5th, 2010

ahmed-nadim49x49

On 2 July 2010 Mohammed Khalil successfully appealed the sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection passed upon him by the Crown Court sitting at Bolton for offences of Causing Grievous Bodily Harm with Intent and Possession of a Firearm with Intent. The Court of Appeal substituted a sentence of 9 ½ years imprisonment with an extension of licence for 3 years. He was represented by Ahmed Nadim.

The Court of Appeal re-affirmed its decision in Attorney General’s Reference No.55 of 2008 by confirming the discretionary nature of sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection. It was described as, apart from life imprisonment, the most draconian sentence available to a court and as such it is sentence of last, but one resort.

July 2nd, 2010

ben-myers49x49A Bolton man who was part of an internet child pornography ring has pleaded guilty to offences of rape, sexual assault and making indecent photographs, at Liverpool Crown Court.  Benjamin Myers, defending, applied for sentence to be adjourned for the preparation of reports. Read more

Courtserve Legal News July 30

Estranged wives in “big money" divorce cases will be barred from using secretly obtained documents in an attempt to prove their husbands are hiding assets that could be included in a divorce settlement, the Court of Appeal has ruled. ::: Financial Times (free registration) ::: CityAM ::: Daily Mail ::: Telegraph

The UK Supreme Court would have to close for business if proposed public spending cuts of 40% were implemented, its chief executive has warned. ::: Guardian

The Ministry of Justice was one of the first departments to publish its so-called structural reform plan, setting out how it will implement the coalition agreement. ::: Law Gazette

The family law supplier base has been 'decimated' by the 'shock' outcome of the Legal Services Commission's tender for civil legal aid work, lawyers groups claim. ::: Law Gazette

A Kent lawyer who sued his own firm of solicitors when he was made to stop work at 65 has lost his discrimination case at the Court of Appeal. ::: BBC ::: Law Gazette ::: The Lawyer

A lecturer at Oxford University's centre for Jewish studies claims colleagues discriminated against her after she converted to Christianity. ::: Telegraph

powered by zFeeder