James Harrison

Crime

James has appeared in many trials for a range of offences, including rape and serious sexual offending (recent and historic), assaults causing really serious harm, robbery, drug matters, driving offences, and domestic disputes.

James has developed particular experience dealing with defendants with mental health issues. He secured a hospital order for a client suffering from a psychotic disorder who had committed ten offences including sexual assault and indecent exposure over a two-year period. He has also successfully persuaded the Crown Court not to activate a suspended sentence on the grounds of the client’s mental health reducing his culpability in his commission of dangerous driving.

James is currently a Grade 3 Prosecutor, on the RASSO Panel and the Serious Crime Panel.

For details of James’s recent cases, please see his news articles.

Notable Cases

Sexual Offending

R v B
James represented a man accused of 15 offences (including allegations of rape) against three different victims, committed over nearly a decade. The defendant was acquitted at trial.

R v S
James represented a man accused of raping a pregnant, homeless woman, but who denied any sexual activity took place. Notwithstanding forensic evidence of S’s saliva being present on the complainant’s nipple, S was acquitted at trial.

R v N
James represented a man accused of raping a police officer. After careful presentation of the messages between the pair, the defendant was acquitted.

R v B
Represented a child defendant tried in respect of two offences of sexual assault against his 14-year-old female cousin. Between the commission of the offence and the trial, B pleaded guilty to attempted rape and sexual assault committed against his mother.  B was sentenced to a three-year conditional discharge in the Youth Court.

Violence

R v D & B
James successfully prosecuted the trial of two defendants in respect of a stabbing in an alleyway that left the victim with life-threatening wounds and a permanent brain injury.

R v W
James represented a man accused of fracturing his ex-partner’s ankle by accelerating away as she tried to leave the car that they were in following an argument. The defendant was acquitted.

R v P & Ors
James prosecuted two men who robbed sex workers with an imitation firearm. The first defendant received a sentence of 10 years 6 months’ custody and the second defendant received a sentence of 4 years’ custody.

R v C & Ors
James successfully prosecuted four young defendants for their involvement in a series of robberies committed against another young man, and also for a group attack on two other men using weapons. Sentences ranged from 12 months to 34 months’ custody.

Regulatory

Since pupillage, James has been instructed to prosecuted on behalf of local authorities and to defend clients in respect of such prosecutions. This has included first hearings, case management hearings, trials, and sentencing hearings in respect of the following areas of law:
• Waste transit and fly-tipping offences.
• Food safety law.
• Houses of multiple occupancy.

Additionally, James has been instructed to act for the Driving and Vehicle Standards Agency and as a case presenter for the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

James has some experience of nuisance cases. James has acted for landlords and tenants in respect of issues of mold in rented properties, and he has acted for a group of local residents who complained about a skate park that had been opened close to their properties contrary to the guidance of acoustic experts.

James has been is regularly instructed by the Care Quality Commission in a range of matters. Most often he has regularly appeared in the First-Tier Tribunal Health, Education and Social Care Chamber representing the CQC in cases involving appeals against decisions to cancel registration. Alongside his busy criminal practice, James undertakes several of these types of cases each year.

More recently, James has begun to act for the CQC in criminal prosecutions and in public inquests and inquiries. James In addition, he has appeared in magistrates court cases involving fines in excess of £100k, and in cases involving the death of service users. James has also been involved in inquests involving the deaths of vulnerable persons in hospital and at mental health treatment facilities, which has included the Ida Lock Inquest which received national press attention (here).

Recommendations

Appointments

• Attorney-General’s Regulatory List of Counsel (C List)
• CPS List Grade 3
• CPS RASSO and Serious Crime Panel Member

Awards

Gardiner Scholarship & Harmsworth Entrance Exhibition (2019) from The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple

Certificate of Honour from The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple

UKELA Dame Frances Patterson Moot (2019) Winner

UKELA Lord Slynn of Hadley Moot (2020) Winner

Memberships

Honourable Society of the Middle Temple

Criminal Bar Association

UKELA

Education

Bar Professional Training Course, BPP University (Outstanding)

Graduate Diploma in Law, BPP University (Commendation)

BA (Hons) History, University of Oxford (2:1)

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