Alex Bennie specialises in serious and complex jury trials across the full range of criminal law, including business and financial crime, murder and manslaughter, serious violence, robbery, sexual offences, firearms, and drug importation, production and supply.

Alex is recognised for meticulous preparation, rigorous analysis, sound strategic judgement and effective jury advocacy. His ability to manage large volumes of evidence and complex financial data makes him a sought-after junior, both in led cases and when acting alone.

Alex has extensive experience in corporate and financial crime, including money laundering, and advises throughout investigations and proceedings. He also has particular expertise in POCA and related matters.

Alex maintains a broad general crime practice, with extensive experience prosecuting and defending the full spectrum of serious criminal offences.

Alex has international expertise in capital cases and has assisted with and advised on appeals in several jurisdictions. He has developed resources and delivered overseas training for prosecutors in advocacy, criminal law and procedure. Trained to work with vulnerable defendants, victims and witnesses, he has extensive experience prosecuting and defending cases involving complex legal arguments or expert evidence concerning vulnerability and mental health.

Before joining Lincoln House Chambers in 2024, Alex maintained a multidisciplinary practice encompassing actions against the police and human rights work. Although his principal focus is serious crime, he continues to consider instructions in these areas, particularly matters involving vulnerable parties, minorities or the accountability of public authorities.

Cases of Interest

R v L (Court of Appeal) – Successful sentence appeal following multiple offences of historic sexual abuse. Sentence reduced from 11 years to 7 years on grounds including double counting of aggravating factors, the assessment of remorse following a contested trial, and the application of totality to separate incidents involving different victims.

R v CH (defence) – Acquittal following an 8 day trial on 19 count indictment charging multiple rapes, buggery and indecent assaults of 3 complainants occurring in the family home in the mid 1970s. The case included a complex hearsay argument concerning a deceased complainant.

R v AO (defence) – Successful half-time submission in a multi-handed joint enterprise robbery.

R v FA (defence) – Two counts of s.18 involving spontaneous stabbing of two members of the public. Acted for an extremely vulnerable defendant through to a mental health disposal.

R v SP (defence) – A multi-handed Encrochat drug supply conspiracy case arising out of Operation Venetic. Successfully resisted submissions on role relating to “trusted couriers” centered around money minding, possession of Encrochat phones, and proximity to leadership.

R v AA (defence) – Successful half-time submission in a case of racially aggravated harassment and assault against police officers. Careful analysis of body worn video disproved the allegations.

R v AP (defence) – Acquittal in a case of stalking with serious alarm or distress involving an extremely vulnerable defendant with a severe intellectual disability. Close analysis of the expert evidence and sensitive cross- examination of the complainant properly contextualised the behaviour.

R v AC (defence) – Multi-handed ATM burglary conspiracy involving use of explosives on several occasions.

Actions Against The Police

Alex offers experienced representation to Claimants in multi-track jury trials, and on appeal, in cases involving allegations of police misconduct, false imprisonment, assault, and personal injury to members of the public. He also accepts instructions in inquests. He has expertise in challenging the wrongful uses of handcuffs, of force, of tasers, of entry, of stop and search, and of arrest particularly in cases raising questions of honesty or discrimination. He frequently deals with complex legal arguments on topics such as costs, QOCS, fundamental dishonesty, and s.329. Prior to commencing pupillage, he undertook paralegal work for Bhatt Murphy during the Article 2 inquest into the police restraint death of Olaseni Lewis.

Cases of Interest

PN v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis (Central County Court sitting at the Royal Courts of Justice): Successful challenge of stop and search of a BAME member of the public which was found to have lacked genuine suspicion;

RM v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis (Central County Court sitting at the Royal Courts of Justice): Successful challenge of arrest of a BAME member of the public in connection with a robbery which was held to have lacked honest suspicion.

MP v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis [2022] EWHC 3244 (KB): Successfully acted on appeal in a case which turned on the application of the QOCs regime in proceedings where a personal injury case was raised after issue of proceedings. The case is an authority for the proposition that QOCS applies retrospectively in such instances.

SF v Chief Constable of Kent Police (Canterbury County Court): Successfully challenge of unreasonable use of force in a case of forcible entry into a property and use of a taser on a member of the public.

International Human Rights

Alex has considerable expertise in capital punishment law and comparative procedure and in the international frameworks and human rights law bearing on the criminal process. He also has experience advising on international human rights law and drafting UN complaints. Prior to starting pupillage, Alex volunteered in City University’s Pakistan Death Row project, which won the award for outstanding international collaboration of the year at City’s Vice Chancellor’s Awards 2016. He coauthored several reports on comparative capital case jurisprudence and its application to capital sentencing in Pakistan.

Alex is Director of Programmes at Evolve. Evolve is a charity that traces missing files for capital inmates detained but unable to appeal due to file loss. Evolve reorganized the Supreme Court of Uganda’s civil and criminal registries, as part of which Alex created a digital archive management system for logging the location and movement of case files and trained Supreme Court staff on its use. He more recently created an online training academy for the ODPP of Uganda and co-delivered training on advocacy, criminal law, and case preparation for prosecutors using it. He authored a comprehensive textbook on Ugandan criminal law for that exercise and is currently working on comparable online resources for defence practitioners. He has drafted submissions in successful appeals against conviction and sentence in capital cases. This includes the Ugandan Supreme Court case of Otim Moses where the appellant’s death sentence was overturned following an error of law in relation to his age at time of offending. He had been unlawfully on death row for 10 years.

Alex volunteered at Reprieve for a year working on cases with a death penalty or international human rights dimension. He assisted the Reprieve Africa Team within the Malawi Resentencing Project.

Whilst at 1MCB, Alex assisted Ariane Adam and Vyaj Lovejoy with the drafting of successful submissions to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention which resulted in a declaration of unlawful detention in the case of three relatives of the Director of the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei.