Steven Johnson

Bar Call/Inn
1984
Middle Temple

Education
LLB (Hons) Kings College, London

Areas of Practice
Criminal Law
Corporate Fraud

Areas of Practice

In his early career at the Bar Steven gained a great deal of experience in contract law, family law, personal injury and licensing before, in 1991, deciding to specialise only in the Criminal law. His previous extensive experience in the other disciplines gave him a good grounding in fraud and cases involving serious sexual assaults.

In his 24 years at the Bar he has prosecuted and defended cases at the highest spectrum of the criminal calendar. As a junior he appeared for the Defence in many murder trials as well as a complex VAT fraud heard at the West Midlands Specialist Fraud Centre. He has appeared, with leading Counsel, in many high profile cases. These include defending Michael Horgan, considered by the News of the World to be, at that time, one of this countries worst paedophiles and accused of being the ringleader in the notorious Rochdale ritual satanic abuse case.

During the 1990’s his practise was predominantly defence and for the latter part of that decade primarily concerned child sex abuse cases. Notably, in that period, he successfully defended (as dubbed by “The Sun” newspaper) “Miss Whiplash”.

His defence work has included cases of great complexity involving both the large-scale importation of class A drugs and Multi - handed “car ringing”. He was one of the youngest Barristers to be appointed to category 3 when  categories were first introduced and has, together with a leader, prosecuted a number of murder cases for both Manchester and Lancashire CPS.

In more recent times he prosecuted a group of Co-op bank employees for their fraud upon the bank accounts of Daniel Van Buyten and other high profile Manchester City players. Currently, his practice includes prosecuting, in Lancashire, cases of rape, sexual abuse and significant domestic violence, which have included instances of murder and attempted murder. In November 2006 he prosecuted 23 Defendants on a charge of violent disorder. He has also appeared at the Court of Appeal in a number of conviction appeals on matters of law.

He has been involved in teaching and lecturing for over 20 years both in the United Kingdom and abroad. He was one of the first practitioners to teach on the BVC at the Manchester Metropolitan University during its inaugural year (1998-1999) and continues to tutor advocacy master classes and give the occasional lecture. He is a senior advocacy trainer for the Northern Circuit teaching the art of advocacy to Barristers of up to 4 years call. In March 2008 he was a guest lecturer at the University of Marrakech where he presented a lecture to their masters students upon the English Legal system.

Significant Cases

R v Joel Gordon, Murder

R v Paul Lyons, Conspiracy to murder Court of Appeal conviction appeal

R v Nelson (and 22 others), Violent disorder

R v Michael Horgan

R v Terence Pimley, Conspiracy to import £240 million of class A drugs

R v James Bronson, Attempted murder

R v Christopher Price, Murder

R v Brendan Courtney, Murder

R v Christopher Timms, Attempted Murder

R v Karen Roberts, Attempted Murder

R v Vaille and O’Shaughnessy, Rape

R v Lawrence Bowe (Carlisle), Attempted rape (historical abuse, 3 complainants of different generations)

R v Paul Merrill, Rape

 R v Gary Makinson, Rape

R v Mark Hilton, Rape