Historic conviction for criminal damage quashed on appeal

Tuesday 28 January 2025

Owen Greenhall, of the Garden Court Inquest & Inquiries, Crime and Protest Rights Teams, was led by James Wood KC of Doughty Street Chambers, and instructed by Mike Schwarz of Hodge Jones and Allen, acting pro bono.

The below has been repurposed from a Doughty Street Chambers press release.

Share This Page

Email This Page

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Counsel successfully appealed the historic conviction of an animal rights activist for Criminal Damage.

Chris Baillie was convicted almost 40 years ago of criminal damage, but having given evidence to the Undercover Police Inquiry (UCPI) of the role of an undercover police officer as the driver in the offence, Sir John Mitting (the UCPI Chair) concluded his conviction was inevitable unsafe.

Today at Kingston Crown Court HH Judge Heptonstall granted an extension of 40 years in which to appeal, and quashed the conviction.

James said: “The evidence given to the Inquiry has already disclosed unsafe convictions as a result of the role of inadequately supervised undercover officers. As the work of the enquiry proceeds I hope further convictions will be found to be similarly unsafe. It is pleasing the court acted so promptly in this case to quash this historic miscarriage justice.”

Related News

Related Areas of Law

We are top ranked by independent legal directories and consistently win awards.

+ View more awards