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Simon Rippon

Year of Call: 1996

CPS Grade: 4
 

Direct Access

Accredited by the Bar Council under the Direct Access procedure, and in suitable cases is happy to accept instructions directly from members of the public. Please refer to the Direct Access section of the website for further information.

Continuing Professional Development

In the Citadel series, has lectured on mitigation and on identification evidence.

Areas Of Specialism

Drugs & Gang-Related Offences, Human trafficking and modern slavery, Murder & Manslaughter, Sexual Offences

Career overview

Called to the bar in 1996, Simon initially worked as a Case Review Manager at the Criminal Cases Review Commission. He left the Commission in 2000 to join the Birmingham bar practicing predominantly in Crime with additional experience in family and civil work. He joined Citadel Chambers in 2011, having previously practiced at St. Ives Chambers in Birmingham, and now focuses entirely on Criminal work.

Practice Summary

Simon prosecutes and defends in cases of the utmost seriousness, both as leading and junior counsel. His practice includes homicide, drugs conspiracies, firearms offences, high-harm violence, and complex sexual offending. He has extensive experience defending and prosecuting cases involving multiple complainants, historical allegations, and sensitive third-party disclosure.

 

He is particularly skilled in the cross-examination of children and vulnerable adults and has considerable experience defending vulnerable clients.
Simon is a grade 4 prosecutor.

Details of practice

Recent instructions include:

 

Homicide

 

  • Prosecuting a death by dangerous driving case involving a tractor parked at night on an unlit carriageway, causing a fatal collision.
  • Defending a death by dangerous driving allegation in which the automatism defence was advanced.
  • Prosecuting as junior counsel in a murder involving the deliberate ignition of the deceased’s front door.
  • Defending a woman charged with murdering a pensioner within their home during a burglary motivated by drug addiction, a case involving the consideration of several experts including trichology and blood-spatter analysis.
  • Defending a Somalian defendant with profound mental health difficulties charged with attempted murder, successfully excluding the police interview under caution due to failures to account for his vulnerabilities.

 

Sexual Offences

 

  • Defending an Iraqi Kurd charged with rape and attempted rape of two women (one with severe learning difficulties) after entering their homes as a trespasser, and the sexual assault of a third complainant.
  • Defending a man charged with raping two young children he babysat in the early 1980s.
  • Defending a man charged with abduction and multiple counts of gang rape; the case was terminated at the close of the prosecution case following a successful submission of no case to answer.
  • Defending a vulnerable teenager charged with multiple rapes and sexual assaults against several complainants in a three-month trial.
  • Prosecuting a man charged with the historic rape and abuse of his younger sister from childhood through to her university years.

 

Human Trafficking & Organised Crime

 

  • Defending one of nine defendants in a five-month trial concerning human trafficking for prostitution as part of a major Metropolitan Police investigation including advising on the legality of European Arrest Warrants, detailed analysis of financial records, computer data, and telephone evidence. He successfully brought a s.8 CPIA application securing material vital to the defence. His client was acquitted.
  • Defending a man charged with conspiracy to import £26 million worth of drugs concealed in industrial rollers and transported between England and Ireland. The conviction was followed by an extended contested POCA hearing.

Appellate work

 

  • Representing the Respondent in R v Faris Uddin [2022] EWCA Crim 751, arguing before the full Court of Appeal that the two-strikes knife-possession penalty should not apply. Although the sentence was deemed unduly lenient the court was persuaded not to increase the sentence..
  • Successful judicial review of Wolverhampton Crown court in Askari v WCC [2017], the issue being the unfair manipulation of ‘technical bail’.

Podcasts

Photos

Videos

Further Information

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Downloads

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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.