Amanda O’Mara

Regularly instructed in cases involving defendants or witnesses who are vulnerable by reason of age, mental illness or learning disability, and frequently represents health care professionals accused of theft from or ill treatment, neglect or sexual offences against their patients.

Has extensive experience defending cases involving allegations of serious sexual offences including allegations of rape (current and historic), grooming offences, familial offences and breach of trust offences.

Her practice also extends to multi-defendant complex fraud and drug cases involving detailed analysis of mobile telephone billing records and cell site data, computer evidence and covert surveillance. Has also been instructed as lead counsel in multi-defendant, multi-million pound fraud and money laundering trials throughout the country.

Sexual offences:

• Represented a defendant with extensive learning difficulties charged with (historic) rape, outcome was hospital order rather than imprisonment.
• Represented a male with learning difficulties accused of sexual assault on his girlfriend’s daughters.
• Represented a care home worker charged with sexual assault on a mentally ill patient.
• Represented a defendant charged with sexual assault on a neighbour’s children.
• Represented a youth charged with rape of a child.
• Represented a man charged with rape and false imprisonment of his wife.

Financial crime:

• Represented one of a number of defendants involved in an international revenue share fraud where major mobile telecommunications providers had been defrauded out of over £3 million.
• Represented one of several defendants charged with fraud on elderly people, and money laundering.

Health and social care:

• Represented a grandmother accused of child cruelty against her grand-daughter who suffered with a mental illness.
• Represented a pre-operative transsexual who set fire to her police cell as a protest at search by a male police officer; as a result of the offence the local police force reviewed their policy on searching persons with gender issues.
• Argued that guilty pleas entered by a defendant should be vacated, and sought medical evidence relating to the defendant’s mental health.

Other notable cases:

• Represented a drug user and prostitute charged with armed robbery.
• Represented a teenager accused of being a ‘honeytrap’ in a conspiracy to assault.
• In the trial of a care-worker for theft from a patient with severe learning difficulties, successfully argued for exclusion of comments made to police during a strip-search.
• A defendant charged with kidnapping.
• Represented a defendant charged with causing death by dangerous driving.
• Represented one of several defendants charged with neglect of patients.
• Various appearances in the Court of Appeal, in appeals against sentence (drugs conspiracy, death by careless driving, aggravated burglary) and responding to the Crown’s appeal against terminating ruling.