Clerking team

Tim Booth
Tim Booth

Senior Clerk Sheffield

Louise Gold

Lead Clerk, Crime

Jessica Bull

Junior Clerk, Crime

Jack Paxton

Junior Clerk, Crime

Nicola is an experienced Crown Court advocate and is accustomed to receiving both prosecution and defence instructions.

Nicola was born and raised in the Sheffield area and then studied Law at Magdalen College, Oxford. She was called to the Bar in 2001 and completed pupillage at 18 Red Lion Court, London before moving back to Sheffield and joining Chambers in 2002.

Nicola is accredited to receive instructions directly from members of the public through the Public Access Scheme.

Click here to view our Public Access pages and details of the process for instructing public access accredited barristers.

Crown Court & appeals

Nicola has prosecuted and defended a wide variety of offences from rape to importation of drugs, burglary to serious assaults. She is a member of the CPS rape panel and regularly prosecutes in cases involving sexual offences, including those of an historic nature and those involving child complainants.

She has been junior counsel in murder trials including disclosure junior in a multi-handed gang murder in Sheffield.

She is experienced in dealing with offences involving child witnesses and other vulnerable witnesses.

Cases

  • R v Alan Beecroft. Prosecuted a man who was charged with sexually assaulting a child. Beecroft, already serving a jail term for other offences, was convicted of 11 counts of indecent assault and sentenced to a further six years and nine months in prison. The case was covered in the Doncaster Free press.
  • R v William Abrahams. Prosecuted a pensioner who was found guilty of multiple historic sex offences against young girls. Abrahams was found guilty of six counts of indecency with a child, three counts of rape and five counts of sexual assault, and jailed for 20 years. The case was reported in the Sheffield Star and on the South Yorkshire Police Facebook page.
  • R v David Jamfrey. Prosecuted a paedophile who was jailed for 10 years and nine months. The case was reported on the BBC local news website.
  • Prosecution junior in a multi-handed case involving allegations of child sexual offences committed in the Rotherham area against vulnerable young girls which was widely reported in the national press.
  • Prosecuted a violent disorder involving eleven defendants which took place in a public house where the complainant sustained multiple injuries.
  • Prosecuted a case involving child complainants where there were allegations of rape and assault by penetration, including penetration with objects such as baseball bats and aerosol cans.
  • Prosecuted possession with intent to supply cocaine trial where a significant amount of high purity cocaine was found hidden on common ground close to the defendant’s house. The defendant could only be linked to the drugs through inference from money in his house and mobile telephones.
  • Successfully defended an assault alleged to have been perpetrated upon a prison guard.

Children (Public and Private law)

Nicola has a wide range of experience in relation to family cases. She undertakes all aspects of children work, both private and public law.

In public law she appears for local authorities, parents and children. She has extensive experience of representing local authorities in cases including those with multiple parties and a number of experts. She has represented parents with learning difficulties, victims of domestic violence and those with addiction problems. She has represented parents and the child in complex fact finding hearings. Through her criminal practice she has gained extensive experience of conducting cases involving young and vulnerable witnesses and is able to effectively transfer this experience into the family court.

She represents parents in all forms of private law disputes including those where a children’s guardian has been appointed. She has regularly appeared on behalf of parties in non-molestation and occupation order applications including those with allegations of significant and sustained domestic violence.

Cases

  • LA v KH & Ors [2014] EWFC B68 (OJ): Represented, having been instructed by way of direct access, a potential special guardian in a finding of fact hearing where the client was accused of having sexually assaulted his step-daughter on a number of occasions.
  • Represented a father in a fact finding hearing where his young baby had sustained a range of fractures to his legs and wrists.
  • Represented the child in a case listed for both a fact finding and final hearing where the mother alleged historic sexual abuse of her by the proposed special guardian.
  • Represented the local authority in a complicated and long running public law case which involved repeated allegations of domestic violence and collusion between the parents. The children were placed with a number of extended family members under a variety of different orders where the actions of the father caused repeated potential breakdowns of the placements.

Memberships

  • CBA
  • FLBA