Christopher Jenkins

Christopher represents individuals facing serious criminal allegations, both as a led junior and as junior alone. Christopher’s practice spans the full spectrum of criminal offences, with an increasing focus on serious violence, fraud, sexual offences, and the supply and importation of drugs. Christopher is frequently instructed in cases involving complex and voluminous telephone, medical and financial material, and clients appreciate his ability to advise on complex matters in a straightforward and accessible manner. 

Christopher also has particular experience in representing individuals charged with serious offences who have themselves been the victim of exploitation and trafficking, and has provided a number of webinars and talks on the subject, both alone and with senior counsel. 

Christopher is a CPS Grade 3 Prosecutor. He has a wealth of experience prosecuting offences involving serious violence, money laundering, sexual offences and drugs. Christopher also frequently prosecutes on behalf of private organisations such as Royal Mail , the Federation Against Copyright Theft and the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency. 

Christopher enjoys a busy practice defending members of Her Majesty’s Armed Forces in proceedings before the Courts Martial. Christopher has experience defending in a range of matters, including offences involving serious violence, sexual offences, and offences involving the supply of drugs. 

Christopher is frequently instructed by individuals, companies and insurers to defend a variety of road traffic offences, from allegations of drink-driving to incidents where a fatality has occurred. Christopher regularly appears before the Magistrates’ Court to advance special reasons and exceptional hardship arguments, in respect of which he enjoys an impressive success rate. 

Christopher has a growing regulatory practice, and has experience acting for appellants in proceedings against a range of licensing authorities, including Transport for London, local authorities, and the Security Industry Authority.

Defence

R v S (Inner London Crown Court): Instructed as a led junior represent a client charged with involvement in a sophisticated conspiracy to supply cocaine and heroin over a 9-month period. The case involved a vast volume of telephone data and financial evidence, and required the cross-examination of a cell-site expert and forensic accountant. 

R v DK (Luton Crown Court): Instructed as a led junior to represent a client charged with conspiring to import and supply significant quantities of Class A drugs worth over half a million pounds. The case involved substantial cell-site and ANPR evidence. 

Operation Sarto (Teesside Crown Court): Currently instructed as a led junior to represent a client who is alleged to have participated in a case of systemic abuse against vulnerable patients at a specialist hospital. 

R v H (Woolwich Crown Court): Represented a client charged with s.18 GBH and an associated weapon offence against an elderly complainant. The defence was that the injuries had in fact been accidentally inflicted by the complainant’s son during a street fight which the complainant had attempted to break up. The case required the careful cross-examination of four eyewitnesses, one of whom was an immigration officer. The client was unanimously acquitted after a 6-day trial. 

R v L (Kingston Crown Court): Client unanimously acquitted of producing industrial quantities of cannabis. The client was living in a house that had been specifically converted into a commercial cannabis factory, with the operation valued at around £500,000. The client averred that she had not been aware that cannabis was being produced at the address. The trial involved the cross-examination of a drugs expert and sensitive questioning of the client, who was herself vulnerable. Christopher’s conduct of the trial was praised by the trial Judge. 

R v L (Lewes Crown Court): Represented a client charged with offences of serious violence and perverting the course of justice arising from an allegation that the client had been cuckooing and exploiting a vulnerable drug user. Following Christopher’s cross-examination of the complainant and eyewitness, the prosecution agreed to offer no evidence in respect of the perverting the course of justice offence and accepted a lesser plea to that charged on the indictment.

R v J (Woolwich Crown Court): Client unanimously acquitted of a sustained benefit fraud against the Department of Work and Pensions. 

R v N (Inner London Crown Court): Represented a client accused of attacking a rival delivery driver, which left the complainant with a permanent facial injury. The incident was allegedly seen by an independent eyewitness. Through careful and considered cross-examination, Christopher succeeded in undermining the accounts of both the complainant and the eyewitness, and the client was acquitted after trial.

R v S (Bromley Youth Court): Represented a young person facing multiple charges of supplying Class A drugs. Christopher successfully advanced the defence under s.45 Modern Slavery Act 2015, and the client was acquitted of all charges after trial.

R v P (Maidstone Youth Court): Represented a university student of good character charged with assaulting his girlfriend on a night out. The assault was allegedly witnessed by several of the complainant’s friends. All the parties were under-18 and the case involved a variety of special measures. The client was unanimously acquitted. 

R v L (Bexley Magistrates’ Court): Represented a university student of good character charged with bringing a combat knife to the O2 Arena. Christopher secured the acquittal of the client following the successful exclusion of the client’s interview under caution and comments made on arrest. 

R v L (Uxbridge Youth Court): Secured the acquittal of a young person facing two charges of assault. The case concerned an allegation that the client had attacked one of her classmates with a glass bottle at a house party, before assaulting the complainant’s boyfriend. The trial involved the handling of seven young witnesses and a variety of special measures. The client was acquitted of both charges after two days of evidence.

R v K (Woolwich Crown Court): Represented a prospective Oxford student charged with stealing over £12,000’s-worth of property from his employer. A suspended sentence was secured despite the matters involving a gross breach of trust. The case received coverage in the London press. 

R v K (Isleworth Crown Court): Secured a suspended sentence for a client who had defrauded an elderly complainant (a close family friend) of tens of thousands of pounds over a period of several months.

Prosecution

Operation Tansu (Ipswich Crown Court): Instructed as a led junior in the prosecution of nine defendants who are accused of laundering over £3million in funds stolen from a solicitors’ client account. 

R v R (Isleworth Crown Court): Prosecuted an individual charged with attempting to kidnap a 3-year-old child from her mother in a busy high street. The case involved the consideration of the defence of insanity and extensive psychiatric evidence.

R v T (Southwark Crown Court): Prosecuted an individual charged with allegations of arson and criminal damage arising from the destruction of a room at a prestige Mayfair hotel. The case involved extensive and complex psychiatric evidence and was reported in the national press. 

R v H (Isleworth Crown Court): Prosecuted an individual who had defrauded a woman who he met on an online dating app out of tens of thousands of pounds.  

R v O (Aylesbury Crown Court): Prosecuted a prison officer who had seriously assaulted a colleague while on duty over a dispute regarding their duties. 

R v W (Oxford Crown Court): Prosecuted a road-rage assault which involved successfully resisting an application for the proceedings to be stayed as an abuse of process due to the misplacement of evidence. 

R v A and others (Wood Green Crown Court): Instructed as junior counsel in respect of the prosecution of seven defendants charged with conspiring to supply cannabis. 

R v C (Luton Crown Court): Prosecuted an individual charged with a campaign of stalking against his ex-partner which culminated in the defendant breaking into the complainant’s property and staging his own suicide. 

London Borough of Haringey v D (Wood Green Crown Court): Prosecuted an individual who defrauded the local authority out of nearly £100,000 over a period of several years. The case involved covert surveillance evidence and a vast quantity of financial evidence. 

London Borough of Haringey v M (Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court): Prosecuted an individual accused of benefit fraud. The fraud had been sustained over a period of 18 months and resulted in a loss of over £37,000. The defendant was convicted and committed to the Central Criminal Court for sentence, where a substantial custodial sentence was imposed.

The case received local press coverage:
https://www.enfieldindependent.co.uk/news/17887859.haringey-fraudster-takes-thousands-deceased-mother/

Fenland District Council v H and CL (Peterborough Magistrates’ Court): Prosecuted a company and its director for a string of commercial-scale fly-tipping offences committed over a 12-month period. Both defendants were convicted after trial, and the defendants were ordered to pay over £24,000 in fines, compensation and costs.

The case received local press coverage: 
https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/local-news/businessman-prosecuted-flytipping-whittlesey-fenland-17166309
 

Courts Martial

R v W (Bulford Court Martial): Represented a sergeant charged with disgraceful conduct, arising from the sending of an unsolicited explicit photograph to a NATO colleague during a foreign peace-keeping mission. A plea to a lesser offence was successfully negotiated, and, following detailed mitigation, Christopher successfully persuaded the Board to draw back from dismissal, a reduction in rank, or a sentence of detention. A financial penalty was imposed, and the client was able to resume his career.  

R v R (Catterick Court Martial): Represented a client charged with two offences of supplying Class A drugs. The Sentencing Guidelines for such offences prescribe dismissal and imprisonment in all but the most exceptional of circumstances.  Following comprehensive and detailed mitigation, Christopher successfully persuaded the Board not to dismiss his client; a short period of detention at MCTC was imposed instead of imprisonment, and the client was able to resume his career. 

R v A (Catterick Court Martial): Represented a client charged with three offences of criminal damage, arising from the destruction of £20,000’s-worth of civilian property on two separate occasions over a period of six months. Following comprehensive and detailed mitigation, Christopher successfully persuaded the Board not to dismiss his client, who was able to continue his career. 

R v S and others (Catterick Court Martial): Represented one of six defendants charged with 10 disciplinary offences arising from what was said to be a systematic campaign of bullying against a junior soldier.

R v M (Catterick Court Martial): Represented a client charged with ABH. The incident was committed under the influence of alcohol and involved a sustained attack resulting in substantial injuries; in the event of conviction, a sentence of imprisonment would have been almost inevitable. Christopher successfully negotiated a plea to a lesser disciplinary offence, which ensured that the client did not receive a criminal record and, following successful mitigation, Christopher persuaded the Board to impose a financial penalty.

Regulatory

F v Transport for London (City of London Magistrates’ Court): Represented a client in appellate proceedings against TfL concerning the interim suspension of the client’s private hire vehicle licence. TfL were persuaded not to resist the appeal after written representations were made highlighting the fact that TfL did not have any statutory power to impose an interim suspension, and that such a sanction was therefore unlawful.  

I v Security Industry Authority (Poole Magistrates’ Court): Represented a client in an appeal against the suspension of his licence following an allegation of rape made during the course of the client’s employment.

• Five Years of Section 45 Modern Slavery Act 2015: Where Are We Now? Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery: Victims Who Offend (together with Benjamin Douglas-Jones QC and James Marsland).
• R v Brecani, Journal of Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law (together with Benjamin Douglas-Jones QC)
• Co-author of a chapter in Human Rights in Criminal Law dealing with the interplay between Article 11 and the criminal law (together with Andrew Johnson). 

• CPS Advocates’ Panel: Grade 3
• Government Legal Department’s ‘Junior Junior’ Scheme
• Young Fraud Lawyers’ Association
• South-Eastern Circuit
• Bar Pro Bono Unit

Education

• 2016: Bar Professional Training Course, City Law School
• 2015: BA (Hons) Jurisprudence, Keble College, University of Oxford

Scholarships and Awards

• 2016: Inner Temple Princess Royal Scholarship
• 2015: Academic Scholar of Keble College, University of Oxford
• 2015: University of Oxford 7KBW Mooting Prize for Outstanding Advocacy

Other Interests
Outside of court, Christopher holds a black-belt in jiu-jitsu, and is a keen footballer, having played competitively for over 20 years.