Rachel Brand KC and Justin Jarmola represented one of two 12-year old boys convicted of murder following a stabbing in a park in Wolverhampton in November 2023

Rachel Brand KC and Justin Jarmola represented one of two 12-year old boys convicted of murder following a stabbing in a park in Wolverhampton in November 2023.     The boys are amongst the youngest ever convicted of murder in the UK.       There will be further hearings to determine whether reporting restrictions can be lifted to allow the boys to be named by the media, and for sentencing.   News reports can be found here :   https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz99py9rgz5o and https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jun/10/two-boys-12-found-guilty-of-shawn-seesahai-in-wolverhampton

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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.