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Graham Russell secures conviction of care worker for sexual offences against children

On Tuesday 20th October 2026 a jury at Stafford Crown court found Thomas Beckerleg, a former residential care worker at children’s homes in Staffordshire and Shropshire, guilty of eleven separate sexual offences against two looked-after children in his care.

 

Over the course of a seven-day trial, Graham Russell presented evidence from 10 witnesses, gathered by two police forces in separate but overlapping investigations. It was shown that Beckerleg abused his position of trust in two children’s homes, firstly as a residential care worker, secondly as a trainee registered manager of a home. He groomed and sexually exploited two vulnerable adolescent girls: the first over a span of two years, when she was aged 14 and 15 years; the second over a shorter period of two months, when she was aged 16 years.

 

The case attracted local media attention:

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/vile-midland-care-worker-sexually-34794836

https://www.expressandstar.com/news/former-stafford-care-worker-found-guilty-of-sexually-abusing-children-9301221

https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/disgraced-former-staffordshire-care-worker-11207955

 

Thomas Beckerleg will be sentenced on 14th January 2027.

Graham Russell was instructed by the CPS’s Rape and Serious Sexual Offences Unit.

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Witness Familiarisation Support And Courses

These are a few examples of courses in which our members have been involved:

  • Witness familiarisation with trainee police officers and special constables from Northamptonshire Police, where the officers were questioned regarding their statements about ‘mock’ arrest exercises
  • Similar exercises with detectives from the West Midlands Police
  • Witness familiarisation with officers of the Northamptonshire Probation Service.  These officers were given training on the process of giving evidence in sentencing hearings in the Magistrates Court and Crown Court
  • Expert witness familiarisation and training, with expert witnesses such as independent Forensic Scientists, and officers of the Health and Safety Executive. The exercises involved questioning regarding expert reports prepared by the participants

Equal Opportunity Policy

 

Citadel’s members come from a range of backgrounds and everyone is treated with the same respect as part of our Chamber’s community. 

 

We operate an equal opportunity policy and act in accordance with the Bar Code of Conduct and the Equality Code for the Bar.

 

We seek to prevent direct or indirect discrimination towards our clients, staff, tenants and pupils, on the grounds of race, colour, ethnic or national origin, nationality or citizenship, political persuasion, religion, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, disability or age.

Maternity / Paternity Policy

We support all members  who  are fortunate enough to become parents.   Whilst Citadel has written policies dealing with issues of maternity and paternity leave for members of Chambers and support staff, we also try to be flexible in our approach and to accommodate individual needs.

Uniquely (to our knowledge) we offer direct financial support to members returning from parental leave in order to cushion the cash flow impact of return to practice . 

Click here to listen to a podcast about our members with children and how we deal with childcare issues.