Constance Briscoe

Constance Briscoe (born 18 May 1957 in England) is a former barrister, and was one of the first black female recorders in England and Wales. In May 2014, she was jailed for three counts of doing an act tending to pervert the course of justice in R v Huhne and Pryce. financing her studies with several casual jobs, including working in a hospice. She took an MA at the University of Warwick.

She was called to the bar in 1983. After pupillage with Michael Mansfield, she joined the chambers of Barbara Calvert. In 1996 she became an assistant recorder, a part-time judge. Briscoe practised in criminal law and fraud, principally defending. She also undertook tribunal work, public inquiries, inquests and acted as president of Mental Health Tribunals. In 2007 she unsuccessfully applied to become a QC.

In October 2012 Briscoe was suspended from the judiciary after arrest and questioning by police.

On 6 August 2014, Briscoe was removed as a member of the judiciary. Her honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from the University of Wolverhampton awarded to her in 2011 was removed by the university's nominations committee in August 2014.

On 15 April 2016, Briscoe was disbarred as a barrister for three professional misconduct charges, which were: "engaging in conduct which was dishonest and discreditable to a barrister; engaging in conduct which was prejudicial to the administration of justice; and engaging in conduct which was likely to diminish public confidence in the legal profession, the administration of justice, or bring the profession into disrepute."

Personal life Briscoe's parents emigrated to the United Kingdom from Jamaica in the 1950s. Constance's mother Carmen had seven children, including Constance, by her husband George Briscoe. She then had another four children by Garfield Eastman. The case was concluded in Briscoe's favour, when a jury in the High Court unanimously accepted her contention that her allegations were substantially true. Briscoe's mother stated that she wished to have this civil decision reversed in the light of Briscoe's later criminal conviction for perverting the course of justice. Police have confirmed she also faces criminal investigation in relation to the evidence supporting the civil judgment in her favour.

Briscoe has two children from a relationship with lawyer Adam Wilson.

Conviction

On 6 October 2012, Briscoe was arrested in Clapham and subsequently bailed pending further enquiries, as a result of a police investigation. No announcement was made at that time as to the nature of any allegations against her.

In February 2013, at the trial of Vicky Pryce, police stated that Briscoe's arrest related to the release of information to the press on behalf of Pryce contrary to statements Briscoe had made, and the police could not rely upon Briscoe as a "witness of truth". Pryce was a friend and neighbour of Briscoe. Briscoe was not charged but remained on police bail.

Prosecutor Andrew Edis told the jury that Briscoe and Pryce had "started it together by approaching a man called Andrew Alderson (a journalist working for the Mail on Sunday)", falsely claiming that one of Huhne's aides, Jo White, took points for him in 2003. According to Edis, Briscoe was a neighbour and friend of Pryce and that the "two of them appear to have cooked up a plan" to bring about Huhne's downfall. On 1 May 2014, she was found guilty at the Old Bailey of three charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice, by lying to police, falsifying a witness statement, and providing a false document to an expert witness. On 2 May 2014, she was jailed for 16 months, she began her sentence at HM Prison Holloway.

Briscoe received an early release from prison in November 2014, before she had served half her sentence.