Martin Butterworth

Year of Call: 1985
 

Continuing Professional Development

An approved pupil supervisor

Areas Of Specialism

Court's martial, Murder & Manslaughter

Career overview

With over 30 years as a criminal advocate Martin has prosecuted and defended across the entire spectrum of Criminal offending, with particular interest and expertise in cases involving firearms and ballistics and death by dangerous driving.

He has appeared in numerous cases involving murder and manslaughter, attempted murder and other grave non-fatal offences of violence; during his career has conducted many hundreds of cases involving rape, serious sexual offences against children, drugs, and all forms of dishonesty.

Practice Summary

Martin joined the bar as a mature entrant following time in the Military and then in the Finance Industry. He was appointed a Crown Court Recorder in 2003 and has sat as a grade 4 CPS prosecutor for many years.

 

Details of practice

Crime
  • Described in the Legal 500 as ‘a very strong and persuasive Jury advocate’, and by Chambers & Partners 2012 as having  ‘a track record which commands respect in the market’, with the 2013 edition commenting on his  ‘particularly strong all-round practice’.
  • A 2014 entry commended his knowledge, stating; ‘ .. particularly renowned for his depth of experience in allegations of death by dangerous driving’.
Murder and Manslaughter:
  • Junior Counsel, represented a defendant who had murdered a taxi driver during a bungled attempted robbery.

Podcasts

Photos

videos

Further Information

Downloads

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.