Under the Wig

As London's leading murder case lawyer, William Clegg represented clients at some of the best-known criminal trials in English legal history. In all during 47 years as a leading advocate, he fought more than 100 murder cases, more than any other barrister currently practising in Britain. His cases ranged from serial killers to alleged Nazi war criminals to ordinary members of the public innocently caught up in police investigations. They include: the Wimbledon Common Murder of Rachel Nickell the Chillenden Murders (Dr Lin and Megan Russell) the Earprint Murder the Murder of Jill Dando Private Lee Clegg (Northern Ireland) the Murder of Joanna Yeates Nazi War Crimes in Britain Rebekah Brooks’s Phone Hacking Trial and International War Crimes Tribunal (Yugoslavia) When Clegg represented paratrooper Lee Clegg in Belfast, his junior in the long-running appeal case was Keir Starmer, future leader of the Labour Party. A Queen's Counsel (now King's Counsel), Clegg capped his long-running career at the Bar as head of chambers at 2 Bedford Row in London. He is now retired and lives in Sussex.  

INTRODUCTION. An experienced murder case lawyer answers the question asked of criminal barristers in England: how can they represent 'murderers' and 'rapists'. Explains the different type of murder charge (homicide) such as acting in self-defence, diminished responsibility and mental incapacity





THE WIMBLEDON COMMON MURDER. Clegg takes a phone call from a solicitor: will he represent a man accused of killing Rachel Nickell on heathland in London in July 1992? Colin Stagg, a local man, looks similar to a witness description. Convinced of his guilt, detectives set up a honeytrap operation





PERRY MASON AND THE ART OF ADVOCACY. Growing up in a working-class home in Essex in 1960s England, Clegg loves the drama and showdowns of the American legal TV show Perry Mason and resolves to become a criminal barrister. He studies law at Bristol University and joins Gray's Inn, an inn of court





THE MURDER OF SAMANTHA BISSET. Samantha Bisset and her daughter Jazmine have been savagely stabbed at their one-bedroom flat in Plumstead, south London. When Clegg reads the case papers for the defence of Robert Napper, he has a good idea who killed them. Criminal profiler Paul Britton does not





RONNIE TROTT. After passing the Bar Finals, Clegg takes the final step for any law student intent on becoming a practising barrister: a pupillage. Clegg works for an idiosyncratic, chain-smoking, vegetarian lawyer. He learns to cover up to 10 cases a day in the magistrates courts around London





THE CHILLENDEN MURDERS. Sometimes a barrister feels he will win a case. When he acts for Michael Stone, Clegg feels the dice are loaded against him. Stone, a heroin addict, is arrested in 1997 and charged with the murders of Lin and Megan Russell and the attempted murder of Josie Russell in Kent





LEARNING HOW TO FIGHT A CASE. During the 1970s and early 1980s Clegg regularly defends clients accused of robbery, burglary and assault. Occasionally he acts as a junior barrister in more serious cases. As his workload intensifies, he learns the secrets to running a successful defence in law courts





HELEN HODGSON. In the 1970s and 1980s defendants often retract 'confessions' after they have been charged. In 1985, the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) tightens police rules. Clegg mounts an appeal for Cherie McGovern, convicted of murdering a woman in a grisly case involving communal living





MUTINY AT 3 HARE COURT. Inside barristers chambers in London a revolt brews against a hard-drinking head clerk. The leading chambers in the 1970s is 5 King’s Bench Walk, 6 Kings Bench Walk, and Queen Elizabeth Buildings. A new set is established, headed by a personal injury silk, Michael Lewis QC





WAKING THE DEAD IN BELARUS. Clegg takes on the UK's first case under 1991 War Crimes Act and is introduced to a gentle 84-year-old from Surrey: Szymon Serafinowicz, who is accused of murdering Jews during World War II. Simon Wiesenthal Centre says he was ‘Commander’ of Belarussian police in Mir





HOW TO BECOME A QC. Becoming a Queen’s Counsel is the pinnacle of achievement for a British barrister. A Queen’s Counsel, or QC, is one of ‘Her Majesty’s Counsel learned in the law’. It’s an honorific rank (King’s Counsel, when there is a king on the English throne). The process is mysterious





ANDRUSHA THE BASTARD. It is -30 degrees and Clegg's lips are so cold he can barely speak. He is in Belarus in the former Soviet Union, defending another former member of the wartime police accused of war crimes. Unlike his compatriot Szymon Serafinowicz, Anthony Sawoniuk is a harder man to defend





DEFENDING FRAUDSTERS. In his first serious fraud case, Clegg defends Wallace Duncan Smith, a banker in the City of London, who is accused of fraudulent trades – paying more than £50m for fictitious Canadian bonds while MD of Wallace Smith Trust Corporation. The Serious Fraud Office is on the other side





CONVICTED BY EARPRINT. Detectives in West Yorkshire call in Dutch forensics witness Cornelis van der Lugt to solve the murder of pensioner Dorothy Wood, killed by a burglar. Clegg argues against the conviction of Mark Gallagher, a burglar whose earprint has been matched to a smudge on a window





WINNING THE TRUST OF A JUDGE. The secrets and quirks of the judges who try criminal cases in England. 'As a barrister, I’ve always thought it’s desirable to be well-prepared and on good terms with a judge because you tend to get what you want more often whereas an ill-prepared or rude advocate...'





PRIVATE CLEGG AND THE JOYRIDERS. Clegg appeals the case of a Parachute Regiment soldier accused of murdering teenagers Martin Peake and Karen Reilly, whose car crashes through a checkpoint in Northern Ireland. Clegg's junior barrister is Keir Starmer, who later becomes leader of the Labour Party





HOW TO APPEAL TO A JURY. When a barrister is addressing a jury, they must pay close attention. Are jurors interested or bored? Every intervention, comment and tactic should be weighed. The tradecraft and advocacy skills of a criminal lawyer are revealed, including some surprises





A MURDER WITHOUT A BODY. One day retired betting shop manager Don Banfield went into his local police station and said: ‘I think my wife is trying to kill me’. He then disappeared. Did the police have enough evidence to charge his wife without finding his body? They thought so. Were they right?





21ST CENTURY SET. Twenty-two years after squatting at 3 Hare Court, clinging onto his place with his fingertips, Clegg becomes Head of Chambers. When the Inner Temple refurbishes its old building, the set moves into new premises in Essex Street, then into 2 Bedford Row, a modern legal practice





WAR CRIMES IN THE BALKANS. Advocating at International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at The Hague, representing Duško Tadić, a Bosnian Serb accused of the ethnic cleansing of Muslims – the first man to be convicted by an international court of war crimes since the Nazi Nuremberg trials





INSIDE CHAMBERS – RIVALRY AND CAMARADERIE. The real story of life inside a London barristers chambers, including how to motivate under-performing lawyers, depression and alcoholism among advocates, relationships with solicitors who might allocate juicy cases and the practicalities of running a set





THE MURDER OF JILL DANDO. At 11.30am on 26 April 1999 a BBC Tv presenter is shot dead outside her home in Gowan Avenue, Fulham. A local man, Barrie George, is convicted of killing her. Amid intense media coverage, Clegg appeals the key ballistics evidence in the case





BRIBERY AND CORRUPTION. Although Clegg mostly represents individuals, the QC also advises multinational companies on criminal law. Providing certain conditions are met, a company can be prosecuted and fined like any human defendant in the criminal courts. Most cases involve bribery and corruption





A GHETTO SHOOT-OUT IN JAMAICA. Like other top lawyers, Clegg works pro bono on worthwhile cases. He represents a Jamaican gangster, Marlon Moodie, in his appeal against the death sentence for killing Police Constable Dewar, under the joint enterprise rule. UK Privy Council decides if he should hang





TRYING TIME FOR LEGAL AID. The criminal justice system in England and Wales has been battered by a decade of government cuts. Fed up with the fall in fees and the inability to hire expert witnesses he has worked with for years, Clegg declines to take any more public-funded cases





THE MURDER OF JOANNA YATES. The 25-year-old landscape gardener and her boyfriend Greg Reardon shared a flat in a Victorian house on Canynge Road in Clifton, Bristol. She disappeared in Christmas 2010. Clegg represents the neighbour accused of murdering her, the Dutch national Vincent Tabak





PRIVATE CLIENTS. Clegg takes on private clients, often pre-charge. 'If I feel that the police case is weak I may make representations to the Crown Prosecution Service arguing that the evidence against my client, as disclosed to me, does not meet the threshold required for charging.'





THE PHONE HACKING TRIAL. At the trial of Rebekah Brooks, Andrew Coulson and journalists from Rupert Murdoch's newspapers, Clegg acts for Mark Hanna, security chief of News International – accused of hiding evidence while the Metropolitan Police look for evidence of illegal voicemail interception





AFTERWORD: A LIFE OF CRIME. As head of chambers, Clegg knows of massive insecurity among many, if not most barristers about the future of the profession and their place in it. They worry about where the next brief is coming from, how much work they will have, how they will maintain their standing





ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.





INDEX. Full list of references in the text. Such as the As: affair, Africa, Ahmci, Allied Irish Bank, Allies, arguing in the alternative, Altman Brian, Alzheimer’s Disease, Amsterdam, Andrusha the Bastard, anti-Semitic, Antoinette Marie, Archbishop of Canterbury, Armed robbery, Armstrong Dean, Asia