Lydia Waine

Practice
Lydia defends and prosecutes in London and across the South Eastern and Western Circuits. She has a particular interest in cases involving vulnerable persons and people with mental health issues and is regularly instructed in cases with these elements. Lydia has prosecuted on behalf of the CPS, the Department of Work and Pensions, GS4, CPS Central North Group Fraud and the London Borough of Wandsworth. Lydia regularly defends and prosecutes in the Crown Court, magistrates’ court and youth court and has appeared in the Court of Appeal. She also has experience in quasi-criminal, regulatory and prison law cases.

Lydia has recently been led by Louisa Bagley defending the alleged ringleader of the Prison Mutiny at Ford Open Prison on New Years Eve 2010/2011. The Defendant is a life sentence prisoner suffering from a Psychopathic Personality Disorder.

Lydia has a great deal of legal editorial experience having worked for Criminal Law Week, Archbold, and on various books published by Sweet and Maxwell. Lydia recently completed a freelance research project for Sweet and Maxwell for the third edition of the publication Human Rights and Criminal Justice which is edited by Professor Andrew Ashworth. This involved collating all the case law of the European Court of Human Rights dating from January 2007 to the present that would impact on the practice area.

Lydia is currently living in Frankfurt, Germany. She remains in Chambers as a door tenant. Whilst she is away Lydia is continuing with her legal editorial work. She writes the online weekly Updater for Archbold and is co-editing a book on criminal evidence which will be published towards the end of 2012.

Lydia is a Grade1 CPS Prosecutor.

Defence
In addition to Crown Court hearings and Magistrates' Court hearings Lydia has also appeared in the Youth Courts.

Prosecution
Lydia has prosecuted on behalf of the Crown Prosecution Service, Probation Service and the Department of Work and Pensions.

Previous relevant experience
What sets Lydia apart is her experience within Legal publishing. For two years she was Assistant Editor at Criminal Law Week, and also Assistant to the Editor of Archbold. Both are hugely important reference sources for the Criminal Bar. This has enabled Lydia to write about, research, and experience important developments in Criminal Law, an interest she has kept and brought into her practice.

Notable cases

General Crime

Lydia (led by Louisa Bagley), after a 7 week trial at Hove Crown Court, successfully defended a life sentence prisoner diagnosed with a Psychopathic Personality Disorder charged with being the “organiser and ringleader” of  the Mutiny that occurred at Ford Prison on New Year 2011. (See news section)

1. BBC
2. Sky news

R v Fletcher [2011]
Court of Appeal - Granted leave to appeal a sentence of 12-months’ detention for possession of a bladed article and theft on the ground that the sentencing Judge had obtained insufficient information regarding the Defendant’s psychiatric condition before imposing a custodial sentence.

R v Payne [2011]
Aylesbury Crown Court – Prosecution Counsel where the Defendant was convicted of carrying an imitation firearm with intent to commit an indictable offence where the only evidence of the alleged intended offence viz. robbery, was that the defendant was walking near a petrol garage shortly before his arrest.

R v Hylton (2011)
Aylesbury Crown Court – Successfully prosecuted one offence of possession of a bladed article and two offences of possession of an offensive weapon.

R v Flynn [2011]
Aylesbury Crown Court – Successfully prosecuted a dwelling-house burglary involving violence and theft of a pensioner’s handbag.

R v B [2011]
Snaresbrook Crown Court – Defence Counsel where no evidence offered by the Crown after a successful application to exclude identification evidence was made on the first day of a robbery trial.

R v Grant [2011]
Basildon Crown Court – Negotiated a guilty plea to theft and no evidence offered on an alternative robbery offence.

R v C [2011]
Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court – Acquittals for a charge of driving without due care and attention and a charge contrary to s.4 Public Order Act 1986 after running a defence of duress.

R v Kuria [2010]
Waltham Forest Magistrates’ Court – No evidence offered after successfully arguing abuse of process relating to delay, loss of evidence and failure to interview.

R v Ghir [2010]
Waltham Forest Magistrates’ Court – Negotiated a bind over for a serious domestic assault by beating allegation.

R v Abrefa [2010]
Barking Magistrates’ Court – Successful submission of no case to answer in a domestic violence assault by beating case.

Quasi Crime
Lydia has been instructed in a number of cases regarding the proposed imposition, and appeal against the imposition, of noise abatement notices.

Prison Law
Lydia has been instructed to represent prisoners at parole hearings.

Regulatory Law
Lydia assisted Louisa Bagley who prosecuted Trading Standards v B&Q, a contact burns case. Lydia assisted Louisa in researching the case and advising on a potential appeal.

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