Client was acquitted of Rape. The case gained national media coverage after I exposed disclosure failings. This case was referred to the DPP for review on grounds of disclosure failings.

National Press Coverage.

Client was acquitted of sexual assault in a Mayfair night club following the disclosure of vital CCTV evidence. The case gained national press coverage after the police failed to hand over vital security footage until the first day of trial. The footage, which was described as containing ‘nothing of interest’ by police resulted in the acquittal. The Judge ordered an enquiry into the disclosure failures by the CPS and Metropolitan Police. The CPS conceded there had been an ‘unnecessary or improper act or omission’ in respect of the disclosure failure.

National Press Coverage.

Client was one of six defendants from Diego-Garcia, tried on a fourteen-count indictment including allegations of gang rape, sexual activity with a child, sexual exploitation and historic grooming offences. The six child witnesses were females aged between 13 and 15 years at the time of the alleged offences. Intermediaries were utillised to assist the complainants. The client was the only defendant who faced allegations made by three complainants. The case involved complex strategic and tactical decisions which enabled successful legal arguments to be mounted. Narita identified significant flaws in the prosecution disclosure exercise and its impact on the integrity of the investigation and trial.

This resulted in the prosecution offering no evidence on all counts, prior to the close of the prosecution case.

Following a 4 week trial the client was cleared of his involvement in the murder of 74-year-old jeweler. The prosecution alleged that the deceased was abducted whilst walking home from his jewellery shop on 24th January by the client and 3 other men. The men tortured and beat Mr. Jogiya for information before dumping him in a country lane. The client was the only defendant to be acquitted despite all co-defendants attributing sole responsibility for the murder on him.

National Press Coverage.

Secured the unanimous acquittal of an Assistant Headteacher charged with six sexual offences. The case took over 26 months to complete due to novel and complex legal argument, relating to challenging Computer Expert Evidence. The Court ruled in favour of the defence submissions, which challenged the reliability and means by which the alleged images had been obtained and attributed. The jury acquitted of the remaining sexual offence allegation in less than 10 minutes at the retrial.

Client was acquitted on all counts of human trafficking and sexual exploitation following nine days of cross examination of the complainant, extensive legal argument on disclosure and abuse of process. The Crown offered no evidence when they conceded that evidence existed which significantly undermined the complainant’s account and the disclosure process. Received national media attention because the client’s plight demonstrated the devastating impact prosecutorial negligence can have on the lives of those accused of a crime – the client spent 13 months in custody during which time she gave birth to a son with a genetic disorder. She and her son spent the first five months of his life in prison.

The Judge ordered an inquiry. The Judge observed “that there appeared to have been a wholesale failure on the part of the prosecution to deal with disclosure properly”. The judge observed that the defence had made repeated focused requests for disclosure but the court had been fundamentally misled at pre-trial hearings and applications to extend the custody time limits as to the strengths of the case, the CPS’s handling of disclosure and the prosecution’s trial readiness. The CPS and police were criticised by the judge for “serious errors” in their handling of the case stemming from the failure to accurately record and properly review unused material.

The Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor gave evidence on oath and accepted the CPS had fallen short in this case and apologised to the Court. He indicated an independent review into the case had been launched and would be provided to the DPP as well as the Court in an effort to identify what went wrong and ensure such mistakes were not repeated.

International and national media coverage.

Secured a Rape acquittal for a Director at Universal Music.

Client who ran a renowned Holistic Energy Healing Service acquitted of sexual assaults. A series of targeted disclosure requests resulted in obtaining email, what’s app and text messages between the complainant, client and other customers which enabled the defence to demonstrate that the complainant was unreliable. The Prosecution conceded that the material resulted in a necessary review of the evidence and later conceding that there was no longer a realistic possibility of conviction.

National Press coverage.

Client faced a forty-six count Indictment, alleging an array of rapes and sexual offences against two step children. Successful legal argument resulted in the court directing that the counts to be tried be reduced to twenty-four. The case was factually complex because one of the complainants had reported the same allegations to the police six years earlier however, the Crown Prosecution Service reached a decision not to proceed to prosecution on the first occasion. The court allowed the prosecution to adduce evidence of the earlier complaint, the reasons it was not prosecuted and bad character evidence of similar fact, namely evidence from his young spurned mistress that the client had groomed her since she was a child. The client’s mistress gave evidence of incidents which the Prosecution alleged were strikingly similar to the index grooming behaviour alleged against the client.

The client’s case was simply that no alleged incidents had occurred and all complainants and his mistress were fabricating allegations, as a result of the affair becoming uncovered. The client was unable to provide any tangible proof of this motive.

Detailed written requests for disclosure during the course of the trial resulted in uncovering a witness who had been in contact with all of the witnesses prior to and during the police investigation. Narita demonstrated through cross examination that this witness had contaminated all accounts.

Unanimously acquitted on all counts within an hour.

Successfully defended in the Aylesbury Child Sex Abuse Trial. Eleven defendants were tried on a fifty-one count Indictment. Narita’s client was one of two defendants who faced allegations by all complainants. The prosecution alleged the complainants came from troubled backgrounds and wanted to feel grown-up when they were befriended by the men, who groomed them by showering them with inexpensive gifts such as alcohol, DVDs, food and occasionally drugs. Narita mastered all of the evidence and unused material in order to make a series of successful legal submissions. Narita deployed skillful, focused and deft cross examination which resulted in all substantive counts against the client being discharged at the close of the prosecution case. This resulted in only one count being left to the jury to deliberate upon.

National Press Coverage.

Prosecution alleged client was involved in laundering monies for the criminal underworld. Narita’s written advocacy succeeded in maneuvering the prosecution into a position where they decided to offer no evidence on the main conspiracy to money launder offence, class A drug offences and a substantive money laundering allegation at the outset of the case. This enabled the defence to severe the client and her husband from the four co-defendants and thereby removing any links or associations with drugs. Evidence of class B drugs found at co-defendant’s premises were also successfully argued to be inadmissible.