Member Profiles

Contact Details

Felicity Gerry KC
Greens List Barristers

C/O Room 302, Level 3
Owen Dixon Chambers West

525 Lonsdale Street
Melbourne Victoria 3000

Tel: 0427 220 988
Fax:
Email: fgerryqc@vicbar.com.au

Year and Place of First Admission

2014, Admitted to the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory

2014, Appointed Queen’s Counsel

1994, Admitted to the Bar of England and Wales

Degrees, Appointments and Awards

  • LLB(Hons) University of Kingston Upon Thames, (1991 – 1993)
  • Class 2.1 LLB (Hons), Law
  • (1st in Evidence)
  • Awarded prize for greatest overall contribution to the Law School
  • Public Officer Corrugated Iron Youth Arts NT
  • Chair of Research and Research Training Committee, School of Law, Charles Darwin University School of Law
  • Member of management committee of The Advocates Gateway preparing toolkits for advocacy with vulnerable people on behalf of the UK Advocacy Training Council
  • Member of the board of Halsbury’s Law Exchange – a politically independent legal think tank engaged in writing articles and contributing to policy papers
  • Part of team providing legal advice and assistance for the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games. Specialisms: Sexual offending and defamation.
  • Member of 2012 UK Bar Council Public Affairs Committee & 2013 UK South Eastern Circuit Representative.
  • Media appearances: BBC News, Panorama, Sky News, Al Jazeera, BBC The Big Questions, BBC Radio 4 Today, PM & Law in Action, BBC Radio 2, BBC 5 Live & Channel 5. Appeared in the BAFTA nominated FGM documentary The Cruel Cut.

Areas of Practice

  • Crime – Homicide, sexual offending, drug trafficking, human trafficking.
  • Online offending
  • Regulatory crime.
  • Crime / Civil – fraud, bribery, proceeds of crime and some personal injury.
  • Family – children and vulnerable adults.

Career

Felicity joined William Forster Chambers in 2015 after 2 years in the Northern Territory and 21 years at the Bar of England and Wales predominantly in major crime. In UK Chambers and Partners directory for 2014 she was described as “A vastly experienced advocate noted for her experience in serious sexual cases, homicides and frauds”. She has appeared in numerous reported cases. Her cases are as follows:

In the matter of Mary Jane Veloso 2015 – death row prisoner in Jakarta, Indonesia seeking to appeal to the Indonesian Government – assisting on legal issues relating to human trafficking referral mechanisms.

R v Jogee 2015 – Ongoing appeal to the UKSC Defence murder involving issues of foundational liability  for secondary parties in joint enterprise murder. CCA Report at R v Jogee [2013] EWCA Crim 1433

In the matter of X 2014 Advising a Swiss Bank in European criminal proceedings for political corruption on a conflict between a £multi–million international restraint order and an international freezing injunction in civil proceedings.

R v C 2014 Defence of alleged gang rape involving issues of extradition of an Australian national where the prosecution offered no evidence on the second day of the trial and the court awarded over £33,000 in wasted costs to the defendant.

The Queen on the application of Aiden Henderson v Secretary of State for Justice [2015] EWHC 130 (Admin) Judicial review of primary legislation removing recovery of private costs of acquitted defendants involving constitutional issues.

In the matter of Afusat Saliu 2014 application to the European Court of Human Rights for interim measures to prevent deportation where the applicant and children are at risk of forced marriage and female genital mutilation.

R v Raynor 2015 defence of former GB Rugby League player on allegations of rape and wounding.

R v W 2014 (currently unreported) successful appeal conviction in relation to allegations of historic sexual abuse where judicial directions were held to have been inadequate.

R v Iqbal 2014 Prosecution trial of CEO of Southwark Muslim Women’s Association for historic sexual offending. Defendant sentenced to 8 years.

In the Appeal of Clifton 2014 Prosecution of rape of a pre–pubescent child where the hearsay provisions were used to rely on pre–recorded video and audio of the child’s complaints and to admit drawings and notes made by the child as well as adducing complex expert evidence in relation to indecent images and other data. An application for leave to appeal conviction was refused.

R v Steen [2014] EWCA Crim 1390 Defence Appeal against conviction for importation, downloading and possession of indecent images of children dealing with mens rea in such cases where it was held that judicial directions were insufficient. Convictions quashed.

Operation Lambourne 2013 Prosecution of Murder/manslaughter and double rape trial. A complex circumstantial evidence case involving expert pathology, biomedical science, toxicology, DNA. Application for leave to appeal refused.

R v Singh 2013 Defence of an immigration lawyer accused of alleged trafficking. Prosecution offered no evidence after service of defence statement.

R v Cox [2012] 2 Cr App R 6 Appeal relating to an adapted trial for a vulnerable defendant which is now used in the training materials for the judicial college and the Advocacy Training Council. I am on the Management Committee for The Advocate’s Gateway which produces toolkits for advocacy with vulnerable people.

Publications

  • 2014: Refereed Viewpoint: “Data Uses to Combat Human Rights Abuses” IEEE Technology & Society Magazine.
  • 2015 Joint article explaining sentencing in child abuse material cases in InPsych, the bulletin of the Australian Psychological Society Limited.
  • 2015: Refereed Journal Article: ‘LET’S TALK ABOUT SLAVES… HUMAN TRAFFICKING: EXPOSING HIDDEN VICTIMS AND CRIMINAL PROFIT AND HOW LAWYERS CAN HELP END A GLOBAL EPIDEMIC (2015) 1 Griffith Journal of Law and Human Dignity 1.
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Mediation and ADR

Felicity is an accredited LEADR and NMAS mediator and has recent experience with financial and family mediation in the NT