Helen Longworth has a significant Crown Court practice including complex crime, serious fraud, money laundering, serious sexual offences and gang related drug trafficking.

Before her call to the Bar, Helen worked for 12 years as a policy advisor in the UK charity sector, working on anti-poverty, education and other social welfare issues. Helen has excellent communication and interpersonal skills, a notable work ethic and is fearlessness in advancing her cases. She is extremely competent, analytical and articulate, as well as showing her wisdom and compassion to a degree that allows her to deal properly and confidently with some of the most vulnerable people in the criminal justice system.

Helen teaches conference and advocacy skills on the MMU Bar Training Course. She is a member of the Northern Circuit Executive Committee, taking responsibility for Circuit communication and for the Pupil Marshalling programme.

Crime

Helen’s practice is one with a good mixture of prosecution and defence work, both as the sole instructed advocate and as a led junior in several long running serious criminal cases including conspiracies to rob, to transfer firearms, to supply drugs and money laundering offences. She has a particular interest in youth justice and has conducted a number of legal arguments for serious offences heard in the youth court.

She exhibits particular aptitude in representing those who are vulnerable, such as struggling with addiction, mental health difficulties or because they are subject to domestic violence. Helen is assiduous in ensuring that her clients understand what is happening and how the process works. She has prosecuted in cases where the defendant has not been fit to face trial and has an excellent working knowledge of procedures on fitness to plead, intermediaries and is adept at advising and taking instructions in such cases.

Notable Cases

Operation Feverfew: Prosecution counsel, Instructed by CCU CPS. Assisting an offender (underlying offence: murder).

R v AR : Defence counsel, s18 on 10-week-old baby. Included expert reports, applications for disclosure, client management and negotiated resolution to a s20 and suspended sentence.

Operation Littlefinger: Prosecution counsel, Instructed by SEOCID. VAT fraud c. £24.5m.

R v CY : Defence counsel, domestic violence and rape.

R v OM : Defence counsel, drug sales where the defence was that the items for sale were in fact sex toys.

Operation Whirlwind/Whirlwind II: Prosecution counsel, Instructed by CPS Lancashire. Trial 1: Kidnapping/Robbery. Sole prosecutor. Trial 2: perverting the course of justice, led by Andrew Smith KC.

Operation Larkshot (2019 – ongoing) : Instructed by SEOCID, CPS. Commercial scale money laundering £266m.

R v Watson: Defence counsel, firearms case with fitness to plead issues.

R v Farid and Others (Operation Cap): Defence counsel, conspiracy to rob.

R v Godfrey and others (Operation Rivington): Prosecuting counsel, conspiracy to transfer firearms.

Inquest & Inquiries

Helen’s experience in policy work means that she brings to her work at the Bar a developed sense of teamwork and well-honed communication skills. Advising individuals from differing professional backgrounds in her former career, she easily explains complex issues simply to whoever she is working with.

She brings to her other areas of practice the practical skills required in criminal advocacy and the sound tactical decision making which is an everyday feature of that work. She is an expert in witness handling and case analysis. The significant emphasis on oral advocacy in criminal work gives Helen an advantage in areas where other practitioners often have a background in predominantly paper advocacy.

Helen has been instructed for inquests and is actively developing her practice in this area. She has worked on cases for the family, prison deaths, and for the police. As a student, she took an active interest in the position of the family at inquest hearings, writing articles for the student body.  She incorporated inquest work into her pupillage. Alongside her criminal work, Helen has built experience in civil personal injury claims, building a combination of skills that ideally suit her to inquest work.

Notable cases

Inquest touching on the death of JP – representing the police in an inquest involving a death following a fall from a building.

Regulatory and Professional Discipline

Helen is a Specialist Regulatory Advocate. She has appeared in cases involving environmental protection, health and safety and food hygiene matters.

Professional Appointments & Awards

• Contribution to the Course Award, MMU, 2016
• Dean’s Award – Highest Mark in Drafting, MMU, 2016
• BPTC Scholarship, MMU, 2015
• Baron Dr Ver Heyden de Lancey Prize, Middle Temple, 2016
• Blackstone’s Entrance Exhibition, Middle Temple, 2016
• Godfrey Heilpern KC Memorial Prize Scholarship, Middle Temple, 2015
• Blackstone’s Entrance Exhibition, Middle Temple, 2015
• Third Sector Young Thinker of the Year, runner up, 2009
• CPS Panel Advocate (general crime – level 3)
• Specialist fraud prosecutor (level 3)
• Specialist POCA prosecutor (level 2)
• Specialist serious crime prosecutor (level 2).