INTRODUCTION
Nigel is a specialist criminal barrister who also practises in family and regulatory work. He has been described in Chambers and Partners Guide to the Bar in the following way: "He's an excellent barrister; he's massively experienced and also thoroughly likeable, which is important to making client relationships work."
BACKGROUND AND EXPERTISE
Since taking silk in 2010, the majority of his work has been in murder cases, but he has also been instructed in cases involving fraud, confiscation, drugs and guns conspiracies and has considerable experience in cases of gross negligence manslaughter cases representing carers.
In 2020 he appeared in a number of murder trials and recently successfully resisted a prosecution appeal against a successful submission of no case in a murder trial in Preston (report here). In 2019 he secured the acquittal of Lee Blowes, who was alleged to have conspired to kill Blake Brown in a gangland execution (report here) and represented Lorraine Khan, who was acquitted of gross negligence manslaughter. In 2018 he appeared in two high-profile murder trials in Liverpool and successfully prosecuted Darren McKie, an inspector in the Greater Manchester Police, for the murder of his wife, also a police officer (see here).
In family work in 2018 he appeared for the maternal grandmother who was completely exonerated in the two week "finding of fact" baby-shaking hearing in Medway CC v K. More recently he appeared in December 2020 for an Albanian mother in a finding of fact hearing involving allegations of modern slavery and forced prostitution.
Nigel is licensed to accept public access instructions directly from the public and regularly accepts privately paid as well as legally aided instructions.
He also practises from 7 Harrington Street Chambers in Liverpool. Fuller information about his work can be found at www.nigelpower.com.
NOTABLE CASES - HOMICIDE
R v H (2020) Defendant was one of four men accused of kidnapping two teenagers and extracting information from them which led to the fatal shooting of Stephen Maguire in Southport. Report here. (Defending)
R v H (2020)Defendant acquitted of murder and arson with intent to endanger life; submission of no case to answer succeeded and prosecution appeal resisted. Report here. (Defending)
R v L (2020)Polish National accused of conspiring to to rob and murdering a former friend, travelling from Southampton to Wakefield with four others in order to do so. Report here. (Defending)
R v C (2020)Polish National accused of murdering his Polish girlfriend in their home while her daughter was in the next door bedroom, required sensitive cross-examination of her under the section 28 procedure. (Defending)
R v K (2019) 65-year-old defendant charged with the manslaughter by gross negligence of her husband; the prosecution accepted a plea to neglect after their expert geriatrician accepted that she could no longer say that she was objective; suspended sentence of imprisonment followed. Report here. (Defending)
R v W & R (2019) Shooting of a 17 year old boy on a motorbike and associated other serious offending. Report here. (Prosecuting)
R v B (2019) Gross negligence manslaughter by a carer who failed to check whether the deceased had returned from hospital; she then starved to death . Report here. (Defending)
Read more NOTABLE CASES - HOMICIDE
R v k (2018)A troubling case involving allegations of manslaughter, causing or allowing a child to die and cruelty. Report here. (Defending)
R v G (2018) Represented the lead defendant in the drug-based kidnapping, torture and murder of Joseph McKeever, whose body was found completely burnt in a car in Everton; the case involved complex scientific and phone evidence and was a "cut-throat", Report here. (Defending)
R v E (2017) Represented a defendant charged with three others of murdering a rival drug dealer in Rhyl. Despite admitting being a career drug dealer and getting out of a car with the co-accused, two of whom had knives and stabbed the three rivals in a van, the defendant was acquitted of two section 18 assaults upon 2 of the men and was acquitted of murder but convicted of manslaughter in relation to the front passenger who was stabbed 22 times. (Defending)
R v D (2016) Defendant was convicted of the murder of an 18-month-old baby to whom she had become Special Guardian. (Prosecuting)
R v S (2015) Defendant was accused of murdering an off-duty police officer and seriously assaulting his two colleagues. The defendant, a professional football coach in the USA, was acquitted of all charges. (Defending)
R v H (2015) Defendant was accused of luring a drug dealer to an ambush where he was stabbed to death by other drug dealers. The case involved complex arguments about withdrawal from joint enterprise and bad character and was one of a large number of conjoined appeals following the Supreme Court ruling in Jogee. (Defending)
R v L-M (2013) Defendant alleged to be part of a wide-ranging gangland joint enterprise to kill four men in a car on a night-club car park in Nottingham. He was acquitted of the single murder and three attempted murder charges that he faced. (Defending)
R v S (2012/2013) 12 -week murder trial in which this first defendant on the indictment was alleged to have organised the robbery and killing of her partner in order to take £40,000 of his drug trafficking proceeeds. (Defending)
R v B (2012) The Defendant was charged with the murder of a sex worker in 2005 in Liverpool. The case involved live evidence from 6 experts and involved standard SGM+, Low Template, SenCE, Y-STR and Identifiler DNA and the statistical analysis of the evidence by David Balding, Professor of Genetical Statistics at UCL. (Prosecuting)
R v M (2010) The Defendant, a nurse in Southport, raped then murdered his wife on the eve of their final ancillary relief hearing. He then staged a car accident and pretended that the deceased was still alive, and made concerned phone calls to friends and family. There was a very large amount of controversial bad character evidence adduced through hearsay. The case attracted considerable local and national press interest. (Prosecuting)
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NOTABLE CASES - FRAUD
R v LH (2013) Represented the leading defendant in “Wales’ Biggest Ever Fraud” which involved more than 320,000 pages of material.
R v Phillip Dennett (2012)Ten-week “Boiler-Room Fraud” which was highly publicised because the first defendant was Lord Hugh Rodley, aka “The Lord of Fraud”. Shares worth more than £14m were sold in companies that did not trade in any meaningful sense. Nigel used defence expert handwriting evidence and cross-examination of the prosecution’s expert chartered accountant during the trial to ensure that although Mr Dennett was the director of the two principal companies operating the frauds and had control of the bank accounts, he was the only one of the five on trial to be acquitted of conspiracy to defraud and fraudulent trading; this was despite the fact that he had given undertakings not to act as a Director during the concurrent investigation by Companies House.
OTHER ACTIVITIES AND INTERESTS
Nigel is a keen footballer, cricketer and cyclist and a season ticket holder at Liverpool FC.
Professional Commentary and Attribution
“Knowledgeable across the full spectrum of serious crime, he exhibits notable strength in homicide cases, as well as large-scale fraud and criminal confiscations. He regularly appears at trial and in appellate proceedings. Strengths: "well prepared and tenacious …robust, thorough and conscientious." (Chambers 2020)“A superb advocate with a real attention to detail” (Legal 500 2020)
"Knowledgeable across the full spectrum of serious crime, Nigel Power QC exhibits notable strength in homicide cases, as well as large-scale fraud and criminal confiscations. He also acts in serious sexual offence cases. Strengths: "an excellent and genuinely fearless advocate. He has a strong belief in his own judgement, allied with a remarkable capacity for hard work." "He is extremely pugnacious in his approach to defending prosecutions of all types, and is just as skilful in general crime as he is in complex fraud investigations. his client service and document preparation are at the highest level." (Chambers 2019)
"A very hardworking silk.” (Legal 500 2018)
“Nigel is an excellent trial QC and, due to his speedy analysis of the evidence, he runs the trial and effectively and controls the impact of the prosecution evidence well. He is extremely conscientious, prompt with his advice and a tireless force when it comes to preparation." (Chambers 2018)
"A confident and unflappable advocate." (Legal 500 2017)
"Knowledgeable across the full spectrum of criminal law, Nigel Power QC exhibits notable strength in homicide cases, as well as large-scale fraud and criminal confiscations." (chambers 2017)
"Impressive technical ability" (Legal 500 2016)
"He's an excellent barrister; he's massively experienced and also thoroughly likeable, which is important to making client relationships work." (Chambers 2016)
“Always brings a new dimension to any conversation about strategy in a complex case." (Legal 500 2015)
Has an extensive practice covering all areas of serious crime. He is highly regarded for his expertise on complex and high-profile cases such as gangland murders.” (Chambers 2014)
"Experienced in cases involving complex DNA evidence." (Legal 500 2014)
"Admired for his busy practice that covers all areas of serious crime. he is described as hard-working. His distinguished track record includes acting in gangland shootings, serious fraud and drug trafficking offences." (Chambers 2013)
"Nigel Power QC excels in cases involving complex technical, medical or scientific evidence.” (legal 500 2013)