Ella Fornsworth

Ella is frequently instructed on cases in the Crown Court. She often represents the Crown Prosecution Service on committals for sentence, PTPH hearings, bail applications and sentencing. During pupillage, she was also instructed to prosecute a Crown Court trial.

Alongside this, Ella is building up a strong defence practice which she is keen to continue to expand. She has appeared on behalf of the defence in the Crown Court for a number of hearings, including representing a Defendant who had been found unfit to stand trial, for a “finding of fact”, on which the Crown offered no evidence to all charges. She is currently instructed in a Crown Court defence trial, representing a defendant charged with controlling and coercive behaviour, intentional strangulation and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Ella often acts on behalf of the Probation Service in the Crown Court, dealing with breaches and amendments of suspended sentence and community orders. She has been entrusted to provide advice to the Probation Service in relation to the overarching policy and approach to extension of unpaid work requirements in Sheffield.

Featured Cases

• R v JM 2023 – Defended at sentence a Defendant who had entered a Guilty plea to theft of £500,000 worth of road surfacing equipment. Ella’s submissions assisted her client in avoiding immediate custody, instead securing a suspended sentence.
• R v NA, 2023 – Prosecuted from trial in the magistrates’ court through to sentence in the Crown Court a Defendant charged with carrying out a bomb hoax at the Northern General Hospital. A complex sentencing exercise involving consideration of a range of case law. The Defendant received a sentence of two and a half years’ immediate imprisonment. The incident was reported in the local media.
• R v PM, 2023 – Prosecuted at trial a Defendant charged with assault of an emergency worker. Following the trial, Ella received positive judicial feedback on her trial advocacy.
• R v JM, 2023 – Defended a case in the Crown Court involving multiple assaults on emergency workers. The Defendant had been found unfit to stand trial. Ella represented the Defendant for “finding of fact” or “trial on the actus reus”; the Prosecution offered no evidence on all charges.
• R v CM, 2023 – Prosecuted at sentence a Defendant charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm on the Complainant as a result of a single punch on a night out. Involved careful consideration of a range of evidence from different perspectives to ensure the case was presented in a fair and balanced way.

Alongside her Crown Court practice, Ella has a wide scope of experience prosecuting and defending in the magistrates’ court. When prosecuting, she has secured convictions in a range of cases, from domestic abuse-related harassment and assaults to acquisitive crime and driving matters.
Ella has represented several defendants in successfully advancing exceptional hardship or special reasons arguments to avoid driving disqualification in relation to motoring offences.

Featured Cases

• R v PO, 2023 – Newton hearing in relation to a sexual assault on a 19-year-old victim by a Defendant in his 80s. Following Ella’s careful witness handling of both a young and distressed Complainant and an elderly Defendant, alongside thorough presentation of the case including several previous consistent statements made by the Complainant, the court found in favour of the Crown’s factual basis.
• R v NB – Secured a conviction after trial in a harassment case spanning months of unwanted online and telephone contact. Involved consideration and presentation to the court of a large volume of multimedia evidence.
• R v PB, 2023 – Represented a Defendant charged with failure to provide a specimen of breath for analysis. Involved legal argument on whether in this particular context, the Defendant had a reasonable excuse for failing to provide if police officers initially accepted his medical excuse given at the time of arrest and allowed him to stop the procedure partway through.
• R v RY, 2023 – Instructed by Bassetlaw District Council to prosecute a littering offence under the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

Ella studied French with English Literature at King’s College London, graduating with a First Class Honours degree. As part of that degree, she completed a year abroad in France teaching English in a French high school.

She then went on to secure a ‘Distinction’ on the GDL law conversion course and a ‘Very Competent’ on the Bar Course.

During her legal studies, Ella completed an internship with the death penalty charity Amicus ALJ UK, assisting with discovery and analysis of large volumes of evidence in relation to death penalty cases in the US alongside assisting in a study monitoring the implementation of the death penalty in the judicial districts of Florida. She also volunteered supporting complainants of crime at Victim Support UK and assisted with notetaking for self-represented doctors in the Medical Practitioners’ Tribunal Service.

•  Exhibition Scholarship, Honourable Society of the Inner Temple (2021)
• Duke of Edinburgh Entrance Award, Inner Temple (2021)
• BPP GDL Career Commitment Scholarship (2020)  

• The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple
• Amicus ALJ UK