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Peta-Louise specialises in crime, international crime, and professional discipline.

What the directories say

Highly impressive, very down to earth and fiercely bright” – Chambers and Partners (2024) 

Peta-Louise is incredibly detailed and has an excellent recall of facts, which is often indispensable. She works incredibly hard. An impressive junior” – Legal 500 (2024) 

“Peta-Louiseis very assured in her manner, the advice she gives is on the money” – Legal 500 (2023) 

Overview

Peta-Louise’s practice spans criminal law, international criminal law, and professional discipline. She is a dynamic practitioner that is recognised in legal directories for both Crime and International Crime.  

Within crime, Peta-Louise regularly acts in serious, complex, multi-handed cases. Her international practice consists principally of defending those charged with genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. She has acted in numerous in high-profile, and politically charged cases, in addition to filing submissions as amicus curiae.  

Alongside her diverse criminal work, Peta-Louise is instructed to present fitness to practice and professional disciplinary cases on behalf as regulators, as well as acting for regulated professionals before disciplinary tribunals.  

Crime

Examples of recent cases include:

  • R v B – instructed for the first defendant charged with attempted murder. Alleged group attack and shooting.   

  • R v P – instructed in this historic murder, where the Crown’s case was that the defendant had brutally murdered a woman and then set fire to the location to dispose of evidence.   

  • R v S – instructed in this knife point robbery where the complainant (a youth) was said to have been stripped naked with the intention to commit a sexual offence. The Judge excluded the identification procedure and the defendant’s interview on the basis that PACE had been fundamentally breached.   

  • R v A - instructed in this people smuggling case where it was alleged that vans were converted to conceal the presence of people, by what was said to be an organised and sophisticated smuggling ring.   

  • R v T - instructed in this cross-jurisdictional conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.  

  • R v R - led junior in this ‘contract killing’ conspiracy to murder. The prosecution case was that the defendant was the​ ‘hit man’ hired by gang members in Turkey to kill a rival in London. The evidence included covert recordings of another defendant providing what was said to be a narrative that implicated others. 

  • R v H - instructed in this conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to endanger life and possession of prohibited firearms for the second defendant.

International Crime

Peta-Louise has experience of proceedings before international and hybrid courts, including the International Criminal Court, International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, and International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Alongside this, she has acted as amicus curiae and advised individuals and organisations on areas within her expertise.  

Professional Discipline

Peta-Louise is frequently instructed to present cases on behalf of regulators, and act for regulated professionals, in the Nursing and Midwifery Council, Teaching Regulation Agency, General Dental Council, and Health and Care Professions Council. She regularly deals with applications for interim orders or reviews of such orders, and representation at final hearings.