Phil Bradley KC was called to the Bar in 1993. Having established wide-ranging and successful defence and prosecution practices, he took Silk in 2017. He is rated as a ‘Leading Silk’ in the 2018 Birmingham Law Society ‘Legal 500’ for the West Midlands.
Since taking Silk, Phil has developed and consolidated a practice defending and prosecuting Homicide and serious crime. He has prosecuted and defended in many cases involving complex mental health issues and is adept at providing common-sense advice and support to his clients.
“Recent work includes multi-handed drugs conspiracies.”
Legal 500 2019
“He really does his homework on cases and is very good with clients.”
Chambers UK 2018
“He is very hard-working and prepares very well. He is also good with clients as well as an excellent advocate.”
Chambers UK 2017
“Recommended for multi-handed fraud, drugs and money laundering conspiracies.”
Legal 500 2017
Notable Cases
R v JS (‘Operation Zeroth’)
2021 - 2022
‘Operation Zeroth’ involved the prosecution of eight men and one woman, following the death of a man in Leamington Spa on 28th June 2020. All nine defendants were charged with Murder (Manslaughter in the alternative) and with an additional count of Conspiracy to Commit Grievous Bodily Harm. This was the first trial in the new ‘super court’ at Loughborough, which was opened in an attempt to relieve the huge back-log of cases following the Covid-19 pandemic. Presided over by Mr Justice Jeremy Baker, the trial lasted 16 weeks. Leading Joe Keating and instructed by Richard Ellis (Purcell Parker Solicitors), Phil represented JS who was unanimously acquitted by the Jury on all counts.
R v AB (‘Operation Liminal’)
2021
Leading Steve Hennessy and instructed by Lorraine Horton (Smith Partnership), Phil defended AB, a young woman charged with the murder of a man who was struck and killed by her car in Stoke-on-Trent in October 2020. The prosecution case was that tensions between two groups of youths escalated over a number of months. AB and her boyfriend were filmed on 27th October purchasing four machetes. Three days later, CCTV captured a car containing AB (front passenger), her boyfriend (driver) and two others pulling up outside the home address of the opposing gang. A party was being held there and when the occupants of the car threw fireworks towards the address, the party-goers rushed out of the property. AB then got out of the car waving a machete. She quickly returned to the car, which was driven away. The prosecution alleged that, having drawn the opposing group from the party, the occupants of the car then circled the block and, on returning, deliberately drove at the group, killing the victim. The defence case was that the party-goers deliberately enticed the occupants of the car back and lay in wait for them in a nearby park with a view to ambushing them and damaging the car. When the car returned, the party-goers did just that and the subsequent collision was a tragic accident. The Jury unanimously acquitted AB and her co-defendants of Murder and Manslaughter.
R v DR (‘Operation Thimbleberry’)
2021
Leading Stephen Cadwaladr (Cornwall Street Chambers), Phil defended DR, who was captured on CCTV approaching his estranged brother who sat in the passenger seat of a stationary car. DR then leaned through the open window of the car and stabbed his brother in the chest. DR (accompanied by three others) then returned to their vehicle and drove off. The victim staggered from the passenger seat of the car he was sitting in and died on the pavement. DR was arrested days later in the north-east. A ‘suicide’ note containing an apparent confession was found at a hotel he stayed in shortly after the attack. He denied the murder charge, but was convicted.
R v JL (‘Operation Kawdy’)
2021
Leading Siobhan Collins, Phil successfully defended JL, who was charged with the manslaughter of his sister’s boyfriend by restraining him in a strangle-hold. The deceased (DC) had been in a long-term relationship with the defendant’s sister, KL. The couple was now estranged and there was a Court Order preventing DC seeing their two young children. On the evening of 9th March 2019, JL agreed to baby-sit the children, so that his sister could go to a party. In the early hours of the following morning, DC turned up at the flat unannounced, letting himself in. He was intoxicated and became abusive when the defendant asked him to leave. The defendant alerted his sister who in turn called the police. The prosecution claimed that JL became increasingly frustrated with DC. Losing his temper, he slapped DC who also sustained a broken nose – caused, the prosecution claimed, by a shod foot. He then restrained DC in a neck-hold, applying such pressure that by the time police arrived, DC was unconscious. He was declared dead a short while later. The defence argued that JL’s actions were proportionate; he was dealing with an aggressive man who was, effectively, trespassing at the property. DC posed a threat to the children. Furthermore, the suggestion that his broken nose was caused by a shod foot was demonstrably wrong; it was much more likely caused when both men fell face-down to the floor when the defendant was attempting to restrain DC. In his closing address to the Jury, Phil said DC’s death was a tragedy, “but it did not result from an unlawful act; he did not die at the hands of a criminal. He died at the hands of a babysitter desperate to contain a direct threat to himself and a potential threat to the children”. The defendant was left in an invidious position, effectively “holding a tiger by its tail” until police arrived. After a 7-day trial at Leamington Justice Centre, a Jury unanimously acquitted JL after deliberating for just under 2 hours.
R v EJ (Serial Rapist)
2021
Leading Sharon Bahia, Phil prosecuted EJ who was charged with raping, sexually assaulting and otherwise assaulting five separate women during a campaign of sexual violence against street workers in the dead of night. All of the women were alone and made all the more vulnerable by their addiction to drugs. Each was deliberately targeted by the defendant, who beat them (on two occasions with a bike chain) before sexually assaulting or raping them. After a three-week trial, EJ was unanimously convicted and received a life sentence.
R v OR (‘Operation Voyage’)
Leading Tanveer Qureshi (4-5 Gray’s Inn Square) Phil defended OR, one of three defendants jointly charged with the murders of two men who died from fatal wounds inflicted by a powerful crossbow. OR was convicted of the murder of one man and with the manslaughter of another.
R v TK & Others (‘Operation Lapis’)
2020 - 2021
Leading Eke Tiwana, Phil defended TK, one of several youths charged with the gang-related murder of a 15- year-old child.
R v LS, AM and CK
2020
Leading Mark Connor of St Johns Buildings, Phil prosecuted three men charged with conspiring to cause grievous bodily harm to a woman who was lured to a park in Oswestry in the dead of night. The main defendant (AM) then repeatedly slashed her face with a knife, causing permanent scarring and disfigurement. A hopeless heroin addict, she had fallen into debt with a Liverpool based ‘county lines’ drugs gang. Two of the defendants (LS and AM) pleaded guilty at the start of the trial. AM maintained his ‘not guilty’ plea and was convicted after trial, receiving a life sentence. LS and AM were also received long prison sentences. The Judge described it as the worst case of non-homicide violence he had seen in more than 40 years.
R v AM & RS
2020
Leading Sharon Bailey (Tuckers) and, later, Will Douglas-Jones (St Ives Chambers), Phil defended JT, who was charged with the murder of a man after an argument in a retail car park. The victim and his wife complained about the driving of JT’s partner after her vehicle nearly ran into them. JT got out of the car and argued with the victim’s wife. When the victim intervened, JT delivered a single ‘round-house’ kick to the victim who died instantly at the scene. JT claimed to have acted in self-defence. After a three-week trial, the Jury failed to reach verdicts on either murder or manslaughter. The case was eventually resolved in June 2021, when JT pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
R v DA
2020
Phil travelled to Liverpool Crown Court to prosecute an aged defendant accused of sexual offences dating back to the 1980s and 1990s. He was unanimously convicted on all counts.
R v KK
2020
Leading Mark Thompson, counsel from Coulson Read Lewis solicitors, Phil defended a man charged with the attempted murders of his partner and 9-month-old child. Through a drugs-induced psychosis, the defendant attacked both with large knives. This was another case in which the defendant’s mental health featured. On this occasion, the defence was ‘not guilty by reason of insanity’.
R v MO and JO
2019 - 2020
Leading Jim Dunstan of St Philip’s Chambers, Phil prosecuted what the Judge described as “one of the worst cases involving sexual abuse of multiple children ever to come before the Courts”. The first defendant was a Pastor in the Cherubim and Seraphim Church. Over a period of 20-years, he routinely sexually abused and raped child members of his congregation – resulting in multiple pregnancies. The second defendant (the Pastor’s wife) arranged abortions for some of the children, who were then abused further by her husband. Both defendants were convicted. The Pastor was sentenced to 34 years and his wife to 11 years.
R v TC
2019
Phil defended TC who, with two other Birmingham men and a fourth female defendant, were charged with the Blackmail of a Premiership and England international footballer. Though nationally reported, the complainant’s identity remained protected throughout. TC was found not guilty.
R v MO
2019
Phil led Ayoub Khan in the defence of MO, who was charged with the Attempted Murder of a woman in her own home. The prosecution case was that he was a hit man, whose offending was carefully staged and meticulously planned. The victim’s life was only spared because the firearm jammed after she was twice shot.
R v AR
2019
Phil led John Hallissey (the ’36 Group’) in the prosecution of AR, who was charged with the Attempted Murders of two Prison Officers and fellow inmate. He was also charged with seriously assaulting a third prison officer. On each occasion, he used improvised weapons containing multiple razor blades. This was another case involving mental health issues. On this occasion the defendant, who was psychotic at the time of the attacks, pleaded ‘not guilty by reason of insanity’. The case therefore required the careful presentation of psychiatric evidence for the Crown and careful cross-examination of psychiatrists called for the defence. AR was unanimously convicted on all counts.
P v PG
2019
Leading Sharon Bahia from No.5 Chambers, Phil prosecuted a man charged with the murder of his wife. PG strangled her in the family bathroom after discovering her infidelity. As well as denying that he intended to kill her, the defendant also ran the partial defences of Diminished Responsibility and Loss of Control. He was unanimously convicted of murder.
R v AH
2019
Another nationally reported case, Phil led Paul Smith of St John’s Buildings in the defence of AH, a farmer, who was charged with the murder of his estranged wife. He twice shot her at point blank range in the presence of her 14-year-old daughter before turning the shotgun upon himself. The defendant survived the blast but sustained life-changing facial injuries, meaning that he had to provide his instructions and give his evidence using a keyboard.
R v DC
2019
Leading Oliver Woolhouse of Cornwall Street Chambers, Phil represented DC, who was charged with murder. The defendant thrust a carving knife into the deceased’s chest after having earlier damaged property belonging to the victim’s family and seriously assaulting the victim’s sister and Mother.
R v TB
2019
As Leading Silk, Phil defended a 17-year-old youth charged with Attempted Murder after striking a hammer into the victim’s skull with such force that the hammer remained embedded in the skull after the attack, causing life-changing injuries. The defendant pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, but denied attempted murder. The first jury failed to reach a verdict. The second jury unanimously acquitted him.
R v ZN
2019
Leading Chloe Ashley from No.5 Chambers, Phil defended in this nationally reported and notorious case in which a young child was sprayed with acid whilst shopping with his Mother in Worcester.
R v JN
2018
Leading Prosecution case in ‘trial of the act’ in a case where a defendant with paranoid psychosis repeatedly stabbed and killed his Mother, killed his pet cat and then attempted suicide. Hospital Order imposed.
R v KG
2018
Leading Defence Counsel in a case where the defendant (a paranoid schizophrenic) who used a scaffold bar to attack his wife and knives to attack two elderly relatives and to kill a man in his own home. Murder charges reduced to Manslaughter by Diminished, and Attempt Murders to assault charges. Hospital Order with an order of Restrictions imposed.
R v PB
2018
Leading Defence Counsel in domestic murder, where defendant stabbed partner 27 times. Potential defence of ‘diminished’ fell away after revised psychiatric opinion. The subsequent plea to murder led to a life sentence with a minimum term of 11 years. That sentence was referred by the Attorney General. The Court of Appeal described the mitigation as “a master class”.
R v GC
2018
Leading Prosecution Counsel in a case where defendant brutally murdered fellow resident in a hostel for homeless.
R v TH
2018
Leading Prosecution Counsel in unlawful act manslaughter (deceased pursued by rival drugs gang before jumping from second-floor window)
R v LV
2018
Leading Prosecution Counsel in alleged Attempt Murder by LV of his young girlfriend, having lured her to a churchyard.
R v AH
2018
Leading Prosecution Counsel in a case where a Doctor allegedly indecently assaulted patients.
R v KM
2018
Leading Prosecution Counsel in murder allegation following a stabbing in a nightclub.
R v DW
2018
Leading Prosecution Counsel in Birmingham case where defendant attacked a Church congregation with a knife and plotted to kill his previous solicitor.
R v AL
2018
Leading Defence Counsel in Leicester case in which three children were charged with the murder of a retired, frail man as he walked through the town centre on his way home.
