Edward Francis Trevenen Brown

Edward Francis Trevenen Brown KC (born January 1958) is an English barrister who specialises in international criminal law and human rights. He is one of the most senior prosecutors at the Old Bailey in The Times.

Career at the Bar Brown was called to the Bar in 1983. He currently practises at QEB Hollis Whiteman in London, chambers of Mark Ellison KC, where he heads the specialist criminal department. After beginning his career both prosecuting and defending, Brown specialised in prosecution work from 1986, including several cases of murder, terrorism and organised crime. He took silk (i.e. appointed Queen's Counsel) in 2008. For most of his career he has practised at the Old Bailey. In 2007 he was appointed Senior Treasury Counsel, serving in that capacity until 2014.

Human rights In 2014 Brown became a member of Detention Review Board of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo.

Defence Brown has represented the prosecution, corporate entities and individuals in allegations of corporate crime, corruption, corporate manslaughter and tax investigations. In 2009 Brown acted for Labour Party politicians in Cash for Peerages police inquiry - no charges against MP's were brought.

Prosecution Brown was instructed by the CPS in many of the highest profile British criminal cases including prosecution of Kevin Hutchinson-Foster who passed the BBM Bruni Model 92 handgun to Mark Duggan shortly before the minicab in which Duggan was travelling was stopped by police in Ferry Lane in Tottenham Hale.

Brown was also instructed in the inquest into Duggan's death. He prosecuted members of the GAS (Guns And Shanks) gang from Brixton who were charged with joint enterprise murder in a case of "vicious, shocking and sickening case of gang violence outside a school at a time when pupils and staff were gathering at the start of a school day", Co-defendant Royston Thomas was found not guilty after police detectives relaunched an investigation into the stabbing of 16-year-old Ben Hitchcock. He prosecuted David Jeffs known as the "Mayfair socialite murder", child killer Ben Butler, hitman Jamie Marsh-Smith who was found guilty of murdering a gang boss, and MI5 official Katharine Gun in a widely publicised case involving MI5 and GCHQ.

R v Jogee quote="The appeals by these two men have been used by the Supreme Court to address the problem and change the law. Though they might well have kept the law as it was.There will now be very many cases of applications to appeal against convictions out of time. They won't be confined to murder cases, but to all crime where there was a secondary party, so robberies, sexual crimes. That doesn't mean every case of so-called joint enterprise will be overturned, the justices have been pretty strong on that, particularly because the Court of Appeal on accepts cases out of time when there has been a serious injustice to a party. From today it doesn't automatically become a crime if you prove foresight by the secondary party. It's been found too low a test to be found guilty of a serious crime, but it is still available for a jury to use in deciding whether or not the party intended to encourage or assist the other to do it." — — Edward Brown QC" Brown commented: "It has always been the case that a person who intentionally assists another in a joint crime will be as guilty as the person who physically commits that crime. After the Chan Wing-Siu ruling in 1985, juries have since been directed that if a secondary party foresaw that the principal party might use a knife, for example, with intent to cause harm or murder, then they are guilty of murder as well."

Kevin Hutchinson-Foster

Shanks and Guns gang In 2011 Brown prosecuted two south London gangs known as Shanks and Guns, or SG, and the Black Mafia, also known as the Sydenham Boys. Gang members were found guilty of murder of Nicholas "Nick" Pearton who was thought to be their friend. In May 2011 Pearton, 17 year old schoolboy, was stabbed by gangsters being caught up in a clash between two gangs in Home Park, Sydenham. Pearton was attacked when he went to the park to help gangsters who he thought were his friends, after receiving a call from them. The jury at the Old Bailey saw CCTV footage from the Kentucky Fried Chicken shop of an injured Nicholas running in and collapsing. Prosecuting, Brown commented that Pearton was "the only white-skinned male participant in the incident" when he was chased and eventually killed by a pack of "animals." Brown told the jury: Pearton's father said he suffers 'overwhelming guilt' and 'emptiness' since his son's murder. Only one out of ten gangsters was identified as stabbing Pearton. The others claimed they had been wrongly convicted of murder and manslaughter. Belgian national Edward Conteh was convicted of Pearton's murder and deported after his conviction under joint enterprise law, whilst not being present at the scene. But Judge Anthony Morris said they had all taken part in "a terrifying example of gang violence". Morris also said not enough was being done to raise awareness of the consequences of gang violence. Lazar, 28, was killed after "a number of men" forced their way into a home in Shepherd's Bush, west London Police were called to Askew Road, W11 on 22 October at 2.40am to reports of an unconscious male at a residential property in Askew Road. Lazar was found suffering from what was initially thought to be a stab wound to the chest. He died at the scene a short while later. A post-mortem examination took place 24 October at Fulham Mortuary and established the cause of death as a bullet wound to the chest.

Gintare Suminaite In January 2017 Brown prosecuted Gintare Suminaite, 29-year-old mother from Crawley, West Sussex, who was charged with murder of her newborn child. Prosecuting, Brown told the jury that the child was the product of Suminaite's secret affair with a fellow Lithuanian. Suminaite kept her pregnancy hidden from authorities and her long-term partner, with whom she already had a young child. She attended a hearing at Crawley magistrates' court but did not enter a plea to the murder charge. Suminaite told police she "most likely" intended to kill her baby, but said she did not know why. At the trial held at the Old Bailey she pleaded guilty to a charge of infanticide. Jurors at the Old Bailey heard that Suminaite was bleeding and pale when found by her boyfriend who eventually called an ambulance after she confessed what had happened. The court heard that the child lay undiscovered as medics initially did not spot the body in the baby bath and the couple did not mention it. Suminaite was subsequently treated in hospital for significant blood loss and injury from childbirth. Following her arrest, Suminaite said she strangled her baby with her lingerie, but did not know why. She described giving birth quickly and easily and said the baby was moving and trying to cry. Suminaite told the jury she cut the umbilical cord with a razor then passed out in the bath. When she came to pick the baby up, she said the baby was not moving and she tied a pair of her knickers around her neck and put her in the baby bath. Emergency services were called to her home on Aldwick Road in Bognor. At the hearing, Mr Justice Nicol said that Suminaite's circumstances were "tragic in themselves". At the completion of the trial Mr Justice Nicol said: The courts recognise in circumstances such as this, where there is no underlying psychiatric illness, where there is a low risk of re-offending or causing harm, that what might otherwise be thought of as lenient is the appropriate course, namely a non-custodial sentence. Marshal, who pretended to be an MI6 agent, was filmed by a computer repairman Peter Fasolli who he murdered in a bondage sex session after which he tried to kill another man while on the run in Italy. Peter Fasoli, a 58-year-old IT expert, who lived in a bungalow located near RAF Northolt was terrorised and murdered in 2013 at his own house by Marshall who was called over for an hour of a bondage sex session. On the opening day of his trial at the Old Bailey, Marshall was described as a "calculating and determined" killer. The court heard that during sexual roleplay, Marshall stripped the victim and arrested him for "being a spy" and hacking into a government laptop, the court heard. Fasoli was threatened with a knife and forced to hand over his cash card pin numbers. The footage shows Marshall, 28, calmly standing over the body of his client Peter Fasoli and signing "in the name of the father, the son and the Holy Ghost" in Latin, after killing him. Marshall subsequently set fire to Fasoli's home in attempt to make Fasoli's death look like an accident.

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"The fire, in the early hours of January 7, 2013, had been intended to hide a terrible crime. The fire was set by this defendant in an attempt to disguise what truly happened, and the defendant Jason Marshall very nearly succeeded in escaping justice. Peter Fasoli was killed, intentionally. He had been subjected to a calculated and determined attack, by this defendant whom he invited into his home. In the end he literally fought for his life but by the time Mr Fasoli fully understood the true motives of the person who had tricked his way into his home, it was too late. Desperate as his attempts were, he could do nothing - as you will all too graphically come to understand." — Edward Brown QC, Prosecutor. The court heard how Marshall, who denied murder, first got in contact with Peter Fasoli in December 2012 through social networking site Badoo, inviting to set up a treesome and inventing the persona of a policeman. Prosecuting, Mr Brown told jurors: There is a telling feature of this case - whilst the defendant sought to tempt the deceased into thinking their encounter that night was to be sexual in nature, the sexual element of the night's events played only a short part early on and soon was superseded by physical domination and then violence. During sexual role play, Marshall stripped the victim and arrested him for "being a spy" and hacking into a Government laptop, the court heard. After Marshall fled the scene, he sent a "calculated and cynical" message to Fasoli on the Badoo chat line apologising for not seeing him the night before. He withdrew £750 in cash from the Fasoli's bank account and used his card to buy a flight to Rome. In February 2016 Marshal was arrested in Italy and extradited to United Kingdom to face trial for murder of Fasoli he committed four years ago. A Metropolitan Police spokesman commented: Detectives investigating the murder of a man in Northolt in 2013 have arrested and charged a man on suspicion of his murder. He will appear in custody at Hendon Magistrates' Court today. The investigation into Mr Fasoli's murder was started on 10 November 2014 by officers from the Homicide and Serious Crime Command, after new evidence was passed to the MPS. Mr Fasoli, aged 58, died on Monday, 7 January 2013 after he was brought out of his burning flat in Rubens Road, Northolt. He was threatened with a large hunting knife and forced to hand over his cash card pin numbers, the court heard. Prosecuting, Brown told the jury:

The court heard that during psychological evaluation Marshall told the psychiatrists that he is an incarnation of Archangel Gabriel and stated "You can't judge me, only God can judge me." In September 2017 Jason Marshall was imprisoned for 39 years for the murder of Peter Fasoli. He has previously been convicted in the UK of impersonating MI5 and transport police officials while carrying out searches and of issuing fines on the Tube. and unlawful financial assistance over a $3 billion loan the bank made to Qatar's finance and economy ministry. In 2017 Brown acted as a district attorney for the SFO in the Barclays case which was among the most high-profile cases ever to be brought by the SFO.

Trusteeships and patronages In 2011 Brown became a trustee of the Growing Against Violence, charity that delivers programmes in schools that address gang exploitation and seeks to educate young people and draw them away from gangs and violence. Brown also gave lectures to young south London gang members on law of joint enterprise and on the dangers of gang violence. The programme raised questions about how the courts deal with gang violence, what constitutes a murder and whether young people are being sentenced for crimes they did not commit. Documentary follows Alex and his family as he is charged under the joint enterprise law and examines the increasing controversy surrounding the details of this law which some believe is creating criminals of the innocent.