Child Exploitation

"A highly esteemed set instructed in the most serious cases."

Chambers UK 2024

“A range of highly skilled counsel who are regarded as the leading experts in their areas of specialism, backed up by hard-working and clever juniors."

Chambers UK 2023

"The brilliant set Three Raymond Buildings is well versed in handling the full spectrum of serious criminal work."

Legal 500 2022

The different forms of child exploitation represent an important area of domestic and international criminal law and wider regulation. Members of Three Raymond Buildings are working at the leading edge of these developments.

In relation to the development of the criminal law, examples include prosecuting the first cases of grooming under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, and causing or allowing the death of a child under the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004; a report by one member led to the substantial reforms of the sexual offences prevention order regime in 2014, an approach that has now been adopted in other contexts such as modern slavery, domestic violence and female genital mutilation; giving expert evidence to the Parliamentary Committee that led to the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and advising nationally as to the policing and law relating to county lines. We routinely conduct cases in these areas.

We provide ongoing representation as both counsel to the inquiry and for multiple core participants at IICSA. Individuals have led and authored multiple reports into failures of institutional safeguarding, including that into the criminal conduct of William Vahey at Southbank International School (recommendations including the introduction of neutral notification of low level concerns in organisations, an approach that has been adopted nationally) and into safeguarding and corporate governance at RNIB as part of a Charity Commission statutory inquiry.

More widely, individual roles include membership of the legal panel of the international inquiry into the protection of children in armed conflict (and co-authorship of its report ‘Protection of Children in Armed Conflict’); advising and training through the EU in relation to how to address the needs of children in families of those who have fought in Syria; sitting on the DCMS multi-agency committee directed at reform of national safeguarding training and practice, and a DFID-led multi-agency committee directed at introducing an international ‘passport’ or registration system for those engaged in aid work following the London conference in October 2018; and introducing training in Nigeria through the Bar Human Rights Committee directed at the effective investigation and prosecution of those engaged in child witchcraft.

Our barristers provide safeguarding advice to schools, sporting organisations, religious organisations, corporations and charities. This includes advice on compliance with DBS requirements and advice in relation to ongoing cases, historic allegations and safeguarding inquiries.

Find the right barrister

To find the right child exploitation barrister, and to discuss any possible instructions, please contact our clerks on +44 (0)20 7400 6400 or email clerks@3rblaw.com.

“The set has got a lot of good, top-end people and the breadth of quality has to be seen to be believed.”  Chambers UK 2020

“A top-drawer set celebrated for its strong bench of experts in crime and its excellent track record of significant successes.”  Chambers UK 2019

Child Exploitation barristers

King's Counsel

Richard Horwell KC

Call: 1976 / Silk: 2006

Barrister - Richard Horwell KC

Michael Borrelli KC

Call: 1977 / Silk: 2000

Barrister - Michael Borrelli KC

Trevor Burke KC

Call: 1981 / Silk: 2001

Barrister - Trevor Burke KC

Michael Bromley-Martin KC

Call: 1979 / Silk: 2002

Barrister - Michael Bromley-Martin KC

Patrick Gibbs KC

Call: 1986 / Silk: 2006

Barrister - Patrick Gibbs KC

Helen Malcolm KC

Call: 1986 / Silk: 2006

Barrister - Helen Malcolm KC

John Hardy KC

Call: 1988 / Silk: 2008

Barrister - John Hardy KC

Hugh Davies OBE KC

Call: 1990 / Silk: 2013

Barrister - Hugh Davies OBE KC

Alisdair Williamson KC

Call: 1994 / Silk: 2017

Barrister - Alisdair Williamson KC

Richard Wormald KC

Call: 1993 / Silk: 2019

Barrister - Richard Wormald KC

Matthew Butt KC

Call: 2002 / Silk: 2020

Barrister - Matthew Butt KC

William Emlyn Jones KC

Call: 1996 / Silk: 2021

Barrister - William Emlyn Jones KC

Clair Dobbin KC

Call: 1999 / Silk: 2021

Barrister - Clair Dobbin KC
Junior Barristers

Neil Saunders

Call: 1983

Barrister - Neil Saunders

Siza Agha

Call: 1994

Barrister - Siza Agha

Ben Summers

Call: 1994

Barrister - Ben Summers

Edmund Gritt

Call: 1997

Barrister - Edmund Gritt

Guy Ladenburg

Call: 2000

Barrister - Guy Ladenburg

Luke Ponte

Call: 2003

Barrister - Luke Ponte

Bo-Eun Jung

Call: 2005

Barrister - Bo-Eun Jung

Robert Morris

Call: 2008

Barrister - Robert Morris

Genevieve Woods

Call: 2016

Barrister - Genevieve Woods

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