Sonia Woodley QC

Year of Call: 1968

Queen's Counsel: 1996

Specialist practice areas: Serious Crime, Criminal/Civil Fraud, Serious Sexual Offences, Regulation/Compliance, Health & Safety, Police Discipline, Courts Martial, Inquests & Public Inquiries

Sonia Woodley QC has an extensive practice in all areas of criminal law. Since taking silk Sonia has focused predominantly on defence work and, in particular, specialises in serious and violent crime, as well complex fraud.

Sonia's broad criminal defence practice has included notable homicide cases involving organised crime, gangland shootings and racially motivated offences. She has been instructed in high profile briefs defending Yardies operating out of the Midlands, as well as East London criminal families and Tamil gangs. Sonia also undertakes white collar crime, and has experience, in particular, in corporate fraud and high-value VAT fraud.

Specialising in serious sexual offences, Sonia has a particular expertise in the field of child abuse and juvenile defendants. She has an extensive knowledge of this area of law and a wealth of experience conducting video-link cross-examinations of young children. She is an expert in handling vulnerable witnesses and has an exceptional track record of acquittals.

Sonia also specialises in defending police officers both at disciplinary hearings and in the Crown Court. In addition to representing the three senior investigating officers at the Stephen Lawrence Public Inquiry, she has successfully defended police officers accused of manslaughter and a variety of violent and sexual offences.

Sonia has also been instructed to appear at inquests. She has represented police officers involved in fatal shootings and cell deaths; companies charged with breaching health and safety regulations which include a train crash and a railway bridge collapse.

Sonia has an excellent reputation for successfully managing sensitive and high-profile cases involving members of the medical and legal profession, as well as white collar professionals and celebrities. Particular highlights include successfully defending a prominent solicitor from the Midlands (who himself had represented one of the Birmingham Six) on a charge of indecently assaulting his clients' children (R -v- Geffin). Similar cases attracting a high degree of media interest were R v Ingram, the "Coughing Major" in the Who Wants to be a Millionaire fraud and R v Allison in which Sonia defended a consultant psychiatrist accused of raping and indecently assaulting his patients. She has also successfully defended Jodie Morris, a former Chelsea footballer, who was acquitted of affray along with John Terry, captain of Chelsea football club.

Whilst predominately undertaking defence work, Sonia is also instructed by the Crown and has successfully prosecuted a number of significant cases. Notable briefs have included the much-publicised abduction and rape of two young children in Sussex, R v Hopkinson, a "baby-shaking" case involving complex medical evidence, and the successful prosecution of a consultant psychiatrist convicted of sexually abusing patients whom he had placed under hypnosis. The latter became a leading case on the admissibility of hearsay evidence.

Sonia has undertaken a wide range of fraud cases involving high value VAT fraud, Post Office fraud and general white collar crime, representing amongst others, directors of companies, a financial adviser and Post Office employees. She has recently represented a director of a number of companies charged with a VAT fraud. Her most notable case was representing Major Ingram. "the coughing Major" who attempted to defraud Celador, the producers of the programme, "Who wants to be a Millionaire".

As a Recorder sitting in the Crown Court, Sonia has presided over Confiscation hearings.

Reported Cases

• R v Al-Kawaja [2005] EWCA (Crim) 2697(Hearsay).
• R v Last [2005] EWCA Crim 106 (Minimum term for young offenders convicted of murder).
• R v Allen [1985] AC 1029 (House of Lords: making off without payment).

Appointments

• Recorder of the Crown Court.
• Bencher of Gray's Inn.