Sarah Regan

Degree:

LLB (Hons) University of West

Year of call and Inn:

2000; Lincoln's Inn

Professional Membership:

Western Circuit, CBA

Email:

sarah.regan@albionchambers.co.uk

Specialist Areas:

Crime, including Courts Martial

Practice Overview:

A specialist in criminal law, Sarah has an established practice in both prosecution and defence work, often prosecuting as a sole and leading junior in cases defended by Queen’s Counsel. She is a CPS Grade 4 Prosecutor, a member of the Specialist Rape and Serious Crime Group Panels and is regularly briefed on behalf of the complex casework unit.

Training:

Sarah lectures on advocacy on behalf of Lincoln’s Inn and to state school pupils as a member of the Bar Council’s Speakers for Justice Project. She has acted as a mentor for undergraduate and BPTC students at UWE, is a circuit facilitator for delivering training in respect of vulnerable witness and is the head of the Albion Chambers Crime Team.

Publications:

The Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology 2009

The Times – Tuesday, 14 March 2000: "Dining at the Inns – Other Views"

Sarah has written articles in the following Crime Team Newsletters:

Love is Blind - December 2019
Reclaiming the streets - May 2018
Sexual offences: sentencing update - January 2018
Three into one will go: but at what cost? - April 2016
A victim need not be vulnerable to the Court process itself - November 2015
The wheels of justice - May 2015
A time for change: a new persepective on dealing with historic sexual offences - April 2014
A tug of war - July 2011
Seventy years good? - December 2010
Bad character or not? - May 2010
Too many cooks - April 2009
Mission Impossible? - May 2008
Conflicted Out - November 2007

In the News section:

Brexit - what effect will it have on criminal practice?
Supreme Court returns common sense to the thorny issue of joint enterprise

Areas of Practice

Crime

Tab 1 Title:

Sarah specialises in cases of serious sexual and violent assault, and those involving victims of domestic abuse, but has substantial experience of the full-range of criminal offences including manslaughter and murder. She is regularly briefed in cases with vulnerable, young, or traumatised victims and/or defendants, as well as cases involving witnesses or defendants with severe mental-health and psychological issues.

She has substantial experience of cases requiring special measures to assist one of the parties, including the use of intermediaries and applications for anonymity or for evidence to be given from a remote location. She is regularly requested to advise on issues of fitness to plead and stand trial, as well as the availability of a defence of insanity. She has also built a respected practice prosecuting public officials for misconduct, in particular police and prison officers, and is familiar with the IPCC investigations into this area and, in particular, the report into the abuse of police powers to perpetrate sexual violence.

Sarah has an interest in cases involving novel and complex issues of disclosure and has substantial experience of cases with involving issues of PII.

She advises and lectures police and prosecutors on best practice in respect of vulnerable witnesses.

Recent Cases:

Osborne – prosecution of man for 15 rapes of an ex-girlfriend – unique issue of lack of consent based on deception as to purpose as a consequence of fake social media accounts causing her to fear for his life;

S – defence of man accused of making indecent images including images of his daughter. Significant expert evidence in relation to functions of social media sites and facial recognition;

Bending – defence of 80-year-old man accused of historical sexual allegations dating back to the early 1970s;

B, L and T – prosecution of three youths for conspiracy to rape and other sexual offences committed in respect of a 14-year-old schoolgirl;

F – defence of man accused of historical sexual offences against his stepdaughter, offending which continued after she cohabited with him;

Lord – prosecution of man who raped friend in her sleep;

H – defence of man jointly accused of causing life-threatening injuries to an 11-day-old baby in his care;

Miles – prosecution of man accused of violent offences against his girlfriend who withdrew consent from the prosecution at an early stage;

C – defence of transsexual woman accused of sexual and violent offences against two gay men;

Dunford – prosecution of man accused of attempted rape and violent offences committed against his 75-year-old grandmother;

Potter – prosecution of man accused of sexual assault and false imprisonment of nine-year-old boy.

Reported Cases:

Mills and Poole (2003) 1 WLR 2931, (2004) 1 C R App R 7, (2004) Crim LR 60 (murder/disclosure);

R v Pace West Wiltshire JJ (2002) 2 Archbold News 2 DC (judicial review of justices decision to accept jurisdiction);

R v Pronick (2006) EWCA 2517;

R v Peter James Knight (2007) EWCA Crim 3027 (counsel at trial and who drafted the Crown’s response and skeleton argument although not present at hearing due to maternity leave).