Profile
Hannah has a strong and varied criminal practice, with experience as Leading, Led and Junior alone.
She specialises in serious sexual and violent offences; being known for her ability to sensitively deal with both young and vulnerable witnesses and defendants alike.
Hannah is also regularly instructed in Court Martial cases.
Education
2012: BPP: BPTC (Very Competent)
2010: University of Sussex: Common Professional Examination – Graduate Diploma in Law (Distinction).
• Ranked Top Student of the Year 2010; Law Faculty Prize awarded.
2006: University of St Andrews: MA (Hons) in Modern History (First Class).
With modular studies in English Literature, Philosophy and Classics.
• Ranked in top one per cent of the 2006 graduation year.
Memberships
Inner Temple, Criminal Bar Association, South Eastern Circuit and the Sussex Bar Mess
Further Professional Information
Scholarships & Prizes
• CPE/GDL Prize – DMH Stallard Prize for Best Overall Performance on the CPE 2009-2010
• Inner Temple Major Scholarship 2010
• Inner Temple Major Scholarship 2009
Practice Areas
Cases
Serious Violence:
R v S [June 2016] Successful Appeal Against Sentence on Offensive Weapon Sentence. (The Court of Appeal Criminal Division).
R v DD & Ors [July 2017]: Led junior on a 5-week, multi-handed, Murder (stabbing). (Central Criminal Court).
R v H [October 2018]: s.18, involving bladed article. Under 18, dangerousness, extended sentence applied (Lewes Crown Court).
R v C [April 2019]: Defending female domestic s.18 GBH (stabbing). (Lewes Crown Court sitting in Brighton).
R v O [July 2019]: Led junior in single defendant Murder (stabbing). (Central Criminal Court).
R v C [December 2019]: Successful Appeal Against Conviction. s.18 conviction quashed on basis of legal argument against judicial directions following trial. (Court of Appeal Criminal Division).
R v S [March 2021]: Multi-handed s.18 with vulnerable complainant. (Winchester Crown Court).
R v R [March 2023]: Multi-handed s.18 and Violent Disorder. (Kingston Crown Court). https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10457927/Asda-pranksters-court-assault-Fancy-dress-superheroes-say-innocent-fun.html
R v N&N [April 2023]: Successful Appeal Against Conviction. s.18 conviction quashed on basis of legal argument against judicial directions at trial. (Court of Appeal Criminal Division).
Nash & Nash [2023] EWCA Crim 654
R v C [August 2023]: s.18 acquittal where the issue was excessive self-defence (repeated use of a machete) towards an apparently intoxicated home intruder who forcibly and repeatedly attempted/gained entry into a home in the middle of the night, whilst bleeding from his face, chanting in Arabic, howling and threatening violence. (Hove Crown Court).
R v B [February 2025]: Attempted murder acquittal. Unprovoked stabbing to the chest (twice) of a stranger in the middle of the night. (Plymouth Crown Court). https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czrv7jxvlyvo
R v S [June 2025]: s.18 acquittal where the incident was captured on mobile phone footage, including stamps to the complainant’s head on the ground (Lewes Crown court sitting in Brighton)
R v G [March 2026]: s.18 acquittal in 4-week multi-handed s.18/Violent Disorder at a Youth Offending Institute. Captured on CCTV and BWV (Maidstone Crown Court).
Serious Sexual Offences:
R v T [March and July 2016]: Hung jury and full acquittal at subsequent trial. Sexual Assault on a Child under 10. (Lewes Crown Court).
R v C [July 2016]: Acquittal. Rape and Assault by Penetration. (Lewes Crown Court).
R v S [May 2019]: 28 Count Rape, Assault by Penetration, Sexual Assault and Indecent Images. Under 16 and under 13. Mixed: hung and majority verdicts. (Lewes Crown Court).
R v S [June 2019]: 18 Count Rape, Sexual Activity with and Assault by Penetration of children aged 12-14. Indecent Images and Extreme Pornography. Hung jury on substantive offences. (Lewes Crown Court).
R v D [August 2019]: 19 Count Indecent Images, Sexual Communication with a Child and Voyeurism. Within a school, position of trust, including sexual fetish. (Guildford Crown Court).
R v L [November 2020]: Rape acquittal. (Guildford Crown Court).
R v M [January 2021]: Sexual Activity with a Child. Teacher/Student. (Salisbury Crown Court).
R v D [April 2021]: Sexual Assault on a Child under 13. (Lewes Crown Court).
R V H [May 2021]: Historical Rape of Child. (Wood Green Crown Court).
R v D [May 2021]: Sexual Activity with a Child, leading to pregnancy. (Guildford Crown Court).
R v T [November 2021]: Sexual Activity with a Child and Grooming offences. (Chichester Crown Court).
R v M [October 2022]: 7 Counts of Sexual Activity with a Child and Attempting to Obtain Sexual Services of a Child by Payment. (Winchester Crown Court).
R v S [February 2023]: Multi-count rape acquittal. (Hove Crown Court).
R v C [April 2023]: Multi-count rape acquittal. (Hove Crown Court).
R v B [November 2023]: Multi-count historic Rape and Rape of Child under 13 acquittal. 2 sibling complaints regarding another sibling. (Brighton Crown Court).
R v W [January 2024]: multi-count, multi-complainant sexual assault allegations against school teacher. Acquitted of all. (Southampton Crown Court).
R v I [June 2024]: Multi Count, Multi complainant sexual assault allegations against a doctor working in a hospital. Acquitted of the majority of counts. (Portsmouth Crown Court).
R v C [October 2024]: Multiple rape acquittals. (Lewes Crown Court).
R v S [October-November 2024]: Led junior representing defendant at trial accused of an 85-count indictment alleging 36 years of sexual abuse against 19 complainants (Lewes Crown Court)
R v B [May 2025]: Multiple rape acquittals. (Harrow Crown Court).
R v P-W [October 2025]: leading junior in a 5-complainant multiple rape case. The defendant was a student and the majority of offences occurred on campus at Sussex University. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy0723n27z7o
R v P [November 2025]: 16 counts of rape and Sexual Activity with a person with a mental disorder impeding choice. P accepted that videos found by his wife evidenced years of him abusing a mentally and physically disabled girl when he acted in a trusted position as her taxi driver. (Guildford Crown Court)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx24jl3x3gpo
R v D [February 2026]: Rape acquittal in a particularly sensitive case where all parties had various special needs, including prosecution witnesses, who each had the benefit of s.28 special measures and intermediaries, as did the defendant throughout the trial. The case involved both confession and psychological expert evidence (Guildford Crown Court, sitting in Chichester)
R v S [May 2026]: Silk-led junior in a case that eventually amounted to 100 Counts across multiple joined indictments. Those related to the defendant’s step daughter (99 counts) and her mother over a period of 15 years, since Complainant was 7 years old and until his arrest when she was 22 years old.
S accepted that he had sexually abused, drugged and raped his step-daughter throughout her childhood and early adult life. There were over 7000 videos evidencing that he penetrated her with various large objects, including while she was asleep, and further caused her to be penetrated by a dog. (Winchester Crown Court)
Other:
R v G [October 2018]: Supply Class A Drugs where death caused, in part, by supplied drugs the same evening at D’s address. (Hove Crown Court).
R v C [November 2020]: Fraud. Defendant dishonestly spent £78,000 of his elderly mother’s money on drugs and escorts whilst acting as her power of attorney. (Winchester Crown Court).
R v M [March 2021]: Led Junior in multi-handed Conspiracy to Supply Class A Drugs involving several Organised Crime Groups and overlapping a number of police investigations. (Liverpool Crown Court).
R v T [April-May 2021]: Perverting the Course of Justice. Led Junior in 6-week trial with vulnerable defendant where the offence linked to a double murder by arson. (Brighton Crown Court).
R v A (and others) [February-March 2022]: Leading Junior in multi-handed Conspiracy to Supply Class A Drugs. Hung jury on this defendant alone (others convicted). (Kingston Crown Court)
R v F [December 2022]: Robbery. Acquittal at retrial, in which defence relied heavily on alleged corruption of Police Officers within a MET Police operation. (Southwark Crown Court)
R v T [June 2025]: Blackmail. Days before trial, following many representations made by Counsel and mentions listed regarding failures in disclosure and weaknesses in the Crown’s case (apparent through that which had eventually been disclosed), the Crown accepted a plea to a far lesser charge. D immediately released.