James Baird

R v Stocks & others [2013]
Defence counsel in a multi handed conspiracy to supply drugs worth an estimated £330,000 and money laundering offences totalling in excess of £30,000. The case involved a covert operation for 18 months by Yorkshire and Humber Regional Organised Crime Agency, South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Manchester police forces. The total sentence for all 9 defendants was 84 years.

R v C [2012]
Defence counsel where the defendant was charged with serious violent disorder along with 5 other defendants at YOI HMP Moorlands, Doncaster. The defendant was the only one to be found not guilty after the trial.

R v Vernarsky [2012]
Prosecution counsel led by Nicholas Clarke QC. Successful trial involving defendant who was charged with the murder of a work colleague after he became obsessed with her.

R v Ramsey [2011]
Court of Appeal. 2 day appeal hearing in relation to the defendant who was convicted of the murder of a teenager with a sawn off shotgun in 2009. Case involved the ‘order’ given by a co-accused from his prison cell that the murder should take place. 4 defendants involved who were all convicted of joint enterprise. Fresh evidence came to light that the firearms expert involved in the first trial did not accurately prove that the shotgun recovered was the murder weapon used in the fatal shooting, thus maybe rendering the convictions unsafe.

R v Osman [2011]
Represented the defendant who was charged with the murder of a student by subjecting him to a six hour torture ordeal. The victim was found with 13 stab wounds and his throat cut. The case attracted national publicity.

R v Anderson [2011]
Represented defendant who ran a sophisticated 24 hour operation selling cocaine and heroin, which profited deals worth £250,000 a year. The case came to light after the murder of a man in Sheffield by a drug user linked to the operation. The case attracted national publicity.

R v T [2011]
Represented defendant who was an Alzheimer’s sufferer, who was charged with the manslaughter of a fellow patient in the secure hospital where they were being treated. The defendant was deemed unfit to stand trial due to his increasing ill health, and charged with committing an act of common assault. He was sentenced on the day of trial to a hospital and restriction order in a secure unit.

R v M [2010]
Defence counsel. Defendant charged with historical rape.

R v N [2010]
Defence counsel. Defendant charged with historical rape.

R v M [2010]
Defence counsel. Case involved drug faction from the north east of England and Sheffield, with the defendant allegedly involved in conspiracy to kidnap. The defendant was acquitted after a 6 week trial, and the co-accused jailed indefinitely for the public protection. The case attracted national media coverage.

R v Barron [2009]
Led prosecution junior. Case involved a prosecution retrial on a charge of murder, where Barron was originally convicted in 1995 of the murder of his estranged wife. In 2009 the conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal after new evidence showed blood spray on Barron’s clothing was consistent with giving mouth to mouth resuscitation on finding the body as he claimed. The retrial was ordered but the jury unanimously found Barron guilty. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for the second time.

R v Goodwin [2009]
Prosecution counsel. Defendant charged with murder of his girlfriend in an apparent act of self defence.

R v Pryor [2009]
Defence counsel. Multi handed case involving local area gangland murder. Case listed 9 weeks.

R v Ramsay [2009]
Defence counsel. Multi handed case involving local area gangland murder, where the victim was ordered to be killed by a man in prison via a smuggled mobile phone.