Joe Keating

Homicide

Recent instructions have included:

R v SA  (2013)    

Here, Joe defended a man who murdered his estranged wife. After splitting up, he felt cultural pressure within the Pakistani community to reconcile their relationship. When this couldn’t happen, he broke into the family home and murdered her.    

R v MM (2013)  

Joe defended a man who befriended the victim in a nightclub. The victim was extremely intoxicated. The defendant took the victim to a secluded area where he raped him and then broke his neck in an attempt to kill him. This was a very complicated case of attempted murder with issues around consent to sexual intercourse and causation of the broken neck.  

R v LC (2014)

Joe defended a lady who was one of five people who tortured the victim to death over a number of days. This resulted in all parties blaming each other during the trial.  

R v NB (2015)                

Joe defended a man who was caught up in a gang-on-gang murder. A group of Pakistani men fought a group of Afghan men with knives, swords and guns. Joe’s client was present with the Afghan group and shot in the face. A member of the opposing group was stabbed to death.        

R v TD (2015)

Joe defended a man in a baby shaking case which centred around expert evidence regarding causation.    

R v MJ (2016)  

Joe defended one of three defendants who were involved in a low-level turf war. A meeting between two opposing drug dealers led to a confrontation where a man was killed. Joe’s client was acquitted whereas the other two were found guilty of murder and manslaughter respectively.

R v KR (2018)

Joe defended a member of a notorious criminal gang that planned and executed a drive by shooting at a convenience store in the city. This involved extensive CCTV coverage of the murder and the subsequent attempts to coverup evidence.  

R v RR (2020)  

Joe defended a young man who befriended an elderly man in a bar in Sutton Coldfield.  The two went back to the elderly man’s home where he died of head trauma. The defendant asserted that the elderly man made sexual advances towards him, and he accidentally hit him in an attempt to get away. He was successfully found Not Guilty of murder.     

R v JS (2021/2022)

This was the first case to be heard in the Loughborough Nightingale court. Joe defendant one of eight defendants charged with a joint murder. There was an increasingly violent feud between two rival drug gangs which ended in a confrontation when one man was fatally stabbed.    

R v KL (2022/2023)

Joe’s client was one of 5 youths that were part of a gang that travelled to Redditch as part of a plan to enter another gang’s territory and cause a general disturbance. They happened to come across the victim in a local supermarket who confronted them about their bad behaviour. As a result, a fight broke out between the group and the victim. Joe’s client had taken a kitchen knife to Redditch which was used to stab the man, who died as a result. Joe and his leader were successful in securing a not guilty verdict of Murder.      

R v OP (2023)

Joe defendant a man that went out with another in Birmingham city centre. They were observed taking part in acts of violence before making their way home. They hailed a taxi and directed him to a country lane. The driver was stabbed to death.    

R v SK (2025)          

Joe was a junior defending a man who allegedly conspired with two others to Kill another outside a mosque in Oxford. It was alleged that his client helped plan the attack which left the victim with significant life-threatening injuries. The defendant was found Not Guilty.  

Sexual Offending & Grave Violence

Relevant cases include:

R v TU (2014)

Joe’s client was one of five defendants that kidnapped the owner of a notorious late-night facility in the city centre. He was kept and tortured over 24 hours before arrangements were made for a ransom to be paid. 

R v WB (2017)

Joe represented one of several defendants who were alleged to be plotting to rob cash in transit vans throughout south Birmingham.     

R v KK (2018/19)       

Joe defended a man that entered a funeral home while under a drug induced psychosis.  He admitted that having already interfered with several coffins, he sexually penetrated one of the bodies.   

R v JS (2019)

Joe represented one of six defendants that robbed various youths in and around Sutton Coldfield and Sutton Park. This involved the defendants’ taking items at knife point and filming the humiliation of the victims afterwards. My defence centred around the issue of joint enterprise for some incidents and denial of presence for others.

R v MW (2024)       

Joe’s client faced an indictment with a count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent. Here a middle-aged man was accused of breaching trust with an elderly lady at her home. Joe was successful in securing a Not Guilty verdict.

R v SC (2025)         

Joe successfully defended one of two defendants that allegedly robbed a convenience store at gun point.  

Dishonesty

Relevant cases include:

R v AA (2023/2024)

Joe’s client was one of nine defendants who had allegedly set up fake car selling companies with the view to defraud HMRC of VAT repayments and to defraud finance companies. Joe’s client was the director of a company that had fraudulently claimed VAT repayments. A bank account was also opened in his name for the purposes of laundering payments. When the jury had retired, the Judge was informed about attempts to tamper with the jury by relatives of a defendant. The Jury was discharged, and Joe invited the Judge to carry on and decide the issue of guilt/innocence by himself. The Judge agreed. Joe’s client was one of three found not guilty.