| Year of birth | 1948 |
| Year of call | 1972 |
| Inn | Lincoln’s Inn |
| Circuit | South Eastern |
| Recorder | 1993 |
| QC | 1995 |
| Full CV |
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Martin Heslop is recognised as a leading expert in Crime and is highly regarded throughout the field as a leading criminal silk. He is cited in The Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners Guide as such.
- “in the super league”
- “an incredible grasp of detail”
- “held in high regard by his peers”
- “a thorn in any opponent’s side”
- “punctilious in his presentation”
Although recently he has been involved in significant licencing and gaming cases (see profile and expert category) he has also maintained a substantial and high profile criminal practice involving, for example, the following:-
He was lead defence counsel in the case of Al-Sanousi, the nephew of Colonel Gadaffi of Libya and son of the second most powerful man in that country. This was an extremely sensitive and high profile case with serious diplomatic issues involving direct connection with the Foreign Office, Downing Street and MI6. He was personally recommended at the highest political level to conduct this case which involved serious allegations of assault and causing grievous bodily harm. The prosecution case collapsed after a two week trial following his cross-examination of the two complainants. It should be noted that the sensitive nature of this case cannot be stressed too highly and through his arguments to the trial judge, it received limited publicity despite its potentially far reaching consequences in the event of a conviction.
He appeared for the Crown at the Court of Appeal in an extremely difficult terrorist case which had been referred to the Court by the Criminal Cases Review Committee. This involved highly detailed analysis of experts’ findings about alleged improvised explosive devices. The conduct of the crown under his leadership was praised by the Lord Chief Justice who used his written advice, which was disclosed to all parties, as the basis of his judgement.
He was lead prosecuting counsel in a three month trial involving a series of armed robberies. This was probably the last real supergrass case with five serious target criminal defendants. All were convicted.
He has further been involved in numerous significant murder cases both prosecuting and defending including for the defence, an extremely difficult trial based only on the psychiatric condition of the defendant charged with murder lasting over three weeks involving solely the calling of expert evidence.
He was asked to advise unusually both the Crown and the defence on a serious legal issue concerning the potential prosecution of a major car manufacturer under the Road Traffic Acts. His advice was accepted and no prosecution followed. Had the case proceeded, then this case would have raised serious implications for the motor industry.
He advises regularly on criminal defences in Health and Safety matters for a large number of well-known companies and in 2008 alone delivered no less than two public lectures on the implications of the new Corporate Manslaughter legislation. In addition, he was instructed to advise one of the world’s leading contraceptive manufacturers as to the implications of the Sexual Offences Act upon its new proposed television and newspaper advertising campaigns aimed at young people.
He is currently instructed to lead in a major murder prosecution due to be heard in the 2009. It is expected to last several months. It involves detailed scientific, forensic, ballistic and telephone evidence and concerns a major drugs operation in South London.
In addition he is regularly being offered criminal cases which he is unable to accept because of his existing commitments. For example, he was recently asked to appear for the Cayman Government in the Caribbean and also to defend the main defendant in the headless corpse murder in 2009. Neither of which he was been able to accept.
It will be appreciated his cases are at a highly confidential level involving governments, international companies, corporate entities and other high profile defendants.