No5 Barristers' Chambers - Excellence is at the heart of everything we do.
Background

Mark Heywood KC

Call: 1986 | Silk: 2012

"Mark has a calm and authoritative manner born of years of experience. Juries plainly warm to him and in the right circumstances, he is quite prepared to put judges in their place."

Legal 500 2025

"His style is calm and authoritative. He has a manner in cross-examination that is persuasive and firm."

Chambers UK 2025

"Mark is an extremely polished advocate with a calm, measured and careful approach to all aspects of his work. He has high professional standards."

Legal 500 2024

"Mark has got a naturally authoritative style. He is very fluent, good with presenting, natural and easy to listen to." "He provides robust advice and has a keen strategic mind."

Chambers UK 2024

"He is a strong barrister."

Chambers UK 2023

Mark Heywood KC specialises in the fields of Crime and Regulatory law.

Expertise

Crime

Mark Heywood is a specialist criminal practitioner with extensive experience in serious legally and factual complex cases.

His breadth of experience and his advocacy and advisory skills are allied with a keen strategic judgment. He is well known for the calm authority which he brings to th most sensitive of cases, together with an ability to identify innovative means of presenting evidence to best effect.

He is regularly instructed by CPS Complex Casework and other specialised units and defends in both legal aid and privately funded matters. His practice takes him nationwide and he has recently appeared on behalf of the Director of Public Prosecutions of the Cayman Islands, leading a multi-handed murder prosecution.

Notable Crime Cases


Operation Contigo

6-handed shooting murder and associated woundings carried out over a trivial debt in order to secure a drug dealer’s standing.


Operation Citron

4-handed joint enterprise murder with a machete in a busy shopping centre.


RvA

Manslaughter a 2-year-old child who was fatally starved and dehydrated while fasting as an act of religious devotion, to spare the country from the covid pandemic during the lockdown of 2020 while the defendant’s mental state had developed into insanity.


Operation Parthenon

Murder of a man tortured to death in the mistaken belief that he was storing large quantities of drugs.


R v Hough

Cold case investigation leading to the prosecution of a defendant 41 years after the sexual assault and killing of a teenage girl. The case involved proving that the original suspect, who had pleaded guilty to the killing in 1976 and never appealed, could not have been guilty.


Operation Molar (1) & (2)

Conspiracy to murder, gang revenge killing.


R v Eccleston

Defended the internationally reported case of a woman alleged to have murdered her terminally ill husband in a murder/suicide pact which only she survived.


R v MR

Defending a stepfather in cut-throat defence against the mother of a child who had been successively assaulted leaving brain damage in the months prior to a fatal stamping.


Operation Cascade

Series of trials and appeals arising from rapes and other sexual abuse of residents of a care home by members of staff.


Regulatory

Since taking silk, Mark has appeared before the First and Upper Tier tax tribunals, in matters concerning alleged MTIC and other revenue fraud.

He has advised in and prosecuted cases investigated by the Ministry of Defence police involving contract procurement fraud, theft of armoured vehicle equipment and the

Prior to taking silk, he was for many years a member of the Attorney General’s A panel criminal advocates, dealing in particular with cases involving HMRC and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (as it now is).

In the field of sports law, Mark is the Senior Permanent Chairman on Motorsport UK’s National Court, the final court of appeal for national motorsport.

Sport

In the field of sport, Mark is the Senior Permanent Chairman on Motorsport UK’s National Court, the final court of appeal for national motorsport.

A highly experienced competitor in the past, he has held racing licences up to International Grade C and has competed throughout the UK and in Europe.

Related News, Resources and Events

News


Mark Heywood KC and Olivia Whitworth acted for the prosecution in the trial of 2 youths for the murder of Muhammad Hassam Ali at Coventry Crown Court.

The two defendants were 15 years old and Ali was only 17 years old at the time of his death. The murder took place on…

News


No5 Barristers’ Chambers are proud to support the 10,000 Black Interns initiative

No5 Barristers’ Chambers are proud to support the 10,000 Black Interns initiative, which offers university students and graduates of Black heritage an opportunity to gain…

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Ranked in Tier 2


"Practical and thorough."


"Well-known for violent crime cases and criminal appeals."


"He’s good at working in a team and is very pleasant to deal with."


Times Lawyer of the Week, September 2019


"He is very calm, professional and has an excellent courtroom manner." "Inspires confidence."


"Highly recommended for a purview of serious criminal matters."


"Mark Heywood QC is a very high-standard barrister, both on prosecution and defence."


Related News, Resources and Events

News


Mark Heywood KC and Olivia Whitworth acted for the prosecution in the trial of 2 youths for the murder of Muhammad Hassam Ali at Coventry Crown Court.

The two defendants were 15 years old and Ali was only 17 years old at the time of his death. The murder took place on…

News


No5 Barristers’ Chambers are proud to support the 10,000 Black Interns initiative

No5 Barristers’ Chambers are proud to support the 10,000 Black Interns initiative, which offers university students and graduates of Black heritage an opportunity to gain…

View all related news

Clerk Team

Chris Mitchell

Practice Director, Regulatory

chrism@no5.com

07496 197192

Olivia Clark

Junior Regulatory Clerk

oliviac@no5.com

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