Martin Rutherford

Year of Call: 1990

Specialist practice areas:

Child Abuse, Drugs, Fraud, General Crime, Murder, Sexual Abuse, Violent Crime

Martin both defends and prosecutes, although undoubtedly his practice has leant heavily towards defence work in the last seven years. He is known as a ‘heavyweight' leading junior, with a particular experience in Very High Cost Cases (VHCC) in which he has completed over 3000 hours preparation in the last few years.

Martin's caseload has included numerous murders (instructed in excess of fifteen), multi-million pound drug conspiracies, serious sexual offences and the most complicated types of fraud. Two recent frauds in which he has acted as leading junior include R v Woods and others at Kingston Crown Court ( a 4 month trial involving a VAT carousel ) and R v Smith and others at Leeds Crown Court ( a "phishing" or identity type fraud involving the theft of thousands of identities in order to plunder bank accounts of millions of pounds). He has also recently been instructed to defend in R v Hilditch and others at Liverpool Crown Court, the largest ever prosecution in the UK mounted by the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) .
Martin has a reputation as an intuitive and jury friendly advocate. He is particularly instructed in cases involving vulnerable defendants who are incapable of properly speaking for themselves.
He has consistently been instructed in high profile media-friendly cases, including the following :

Notable Cases

R v Ruby Dorchester Crown Court  

A paranoid teenager involved in a random stabbing of three young schoolgirls. Remanded permanently to Broadmoor, psychiatrists compared the defendant to the Soho nail bomber and saw him as a "ticking time bomb waiting to go off".

R v Smith Kingston Crown Court     

A man charged with the attempted abduction of a young woman from Kingston Bridge in the early hours of the morning. The defendant had just been released from serving 26 years for the rape, mutilation and murder of a young girl in similar circumstances, a conviction which formed part of a bad character application on behalf of the Prosecution.

R v Ghaznavi Kingston Crown Court

Martin appeared as leading junior in a substantial VHCC case involving the prosecution of a multi-million pound cocaine smuggling cartel. The case was prosecuted by the Serious Crimes Unit and was one of the biggest ever prosecuted of its type.

R v Wakeman Guildford Crown Court

Martin appeared as leading junior in a juvenile male rape involving profoundly troubled individuals in care.

R v Jackson Hove Crown Court       

A two month trial involving the prosecution of six juveniles charged with a brutal and senseless murder.

R v Kneen Central Criminal Court

Martin appeared as leading junior defending one of a group of bodybuilders responsible for producing and selling massive quantities of drugs to the south eastern market.

Inn & Degree:

Lincoln's Inn

Degree: English

Personal Interests:

Sport, reading and travel.