Jacinta Jones (2002)

Teams

Animal Welfare & Dangerous Dogs Act, Crime, Immigration, International Human Rights, Actions against the Police and Public Law


Education

MA (Hons) Politics, University of Edinburgh (1999)
Certificat d’Etudes Politiques, Institute Des Etudes Politiques, Universite Pierre-Mendes, (Grenoble, France)
CPE / Diploma in Law, City University, 2000


Practice

Jacinta is a criminal defence, immigration and human rights barrister, and has a particular expertise in cases with an international dimension. 


Profile

Jacinta returned to practice in September 2010 after two years working for the United Nations at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania. She previously spent six months with a Defence team at the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia. 

Jacinta has extensive Crown Court trial experience. Offences range from serious violence, drugs and firearms, to public order, fraud and immigration offences.  She has a particular expertise in dangerous dogs cases, both civil and criminal, including destruction orders.  Jacinta is known for her ability to think outside the box and has made a number of successful abuse of process arguments which have led to her clients being acquitted.

Jacinta's High Court and Court of Appeal practice includes Habeas Corpus and judicial review applications. Her prison law work involves  ‘lifer’ hearings and licence recall hearings before the Parole Board, as well as advising on judicial review proeedings. Her actions against the police practice includes advising claimants alleging unlawful imprisonment and malicious prosecution.

Jacinta also practices regularly in immigration law, specialising in European, bail, marriage, student and deportation cases. She appears in the First Tier Tribunal, Upper Tribunal and High Court. Her criminal experience brings another dimension to her work as she is able to draw upon her evidential knowledge and advocacy experience. She also provides specialist advice in criminal offences with an immigration or deportation element.

Jacinta has a particular interest in vulnerable and mentally disorded defendants.


Notable cases

In a junior capacity:

  • ‘Operation Fontenoy’ (nine -handed million pound conspiracy to import cocaine)
  • 'Operation Scorpion’ (large scale conspiracy to cultivate cannabis)
  • R v Chaudhry (multi handed trafficking of women for prostitution, one of the first of its kind)
  • 'Operation Dramaticus' (seven-handed conspiracy to supply Class A,B and C drugs)
  • R v A & others (multi-handed firearms, drugs, money laundering and perverting the course of justice)
  • R v Trinh (a cultivating cannabis trial and judicial review of a judge’s decision to extend custody time limits)

Alone:

  • R v Dawit, Isleworth Crown Court, [2006] (successful high court judicial review of a judge’s refusal to grant bail – the first case in which legitimate expectation was applied to bail)
  • R v White, [2007] (case stated re a football banning order)
  • R v T, Southwark Crown Court [2007] (judicial review of a judge's decision to extend cutody time limits which resulted in the Crown deciding not to proceed with the case)
  • H v SSHD [2011] (successful judcial review of the Secretary of State's decision to deport a woman with young children)
  • R v AA, Blackfriars Crown Court [2011] (Crown persuaded to discontinue robbery case due to oppressive and leading questioning of vulnerable witness in ABE interview)
  • R v BC and others, Isleworth Crown Court [2011] (following a two week abuse of process argument involving extensive cross examination of police witnesses, this violent disorder case was Stayed for abuse of process and senior police officers were found to have acted in bad faith).
  • R v LF, Kingston Crown Court [2011] (Crown discontinued a robbery case against a mentally disordered teenager following service of an expert report and abuse of process skeleton argument in relation to a false confession)


Other Information

Jacinta provides voluntary legal advice for the charity CRISIS. She has a special interest in the role of the death penalty in international law. Before being called to the bar she worked as a researcher at the Centre for Capital Punishment Studies at the Universtity of Westminster and as a capital defence intern at the Chambers of Desmond Allum SC in Trinidad & Tobago, where her principal role was interviewing death row prisoners at Port-of-Spain Prison.

Jacinta's international law experience includes volunteering for the charity Prisoners Abroad and, prior to coming to the Bar, undertaking a stage at the European Commission in Brussels in Environmental law.

Jacinta is a Director of the charity the Colombia Caravana, which supports human rights defenders in Colombia. In August 2010, she visited Colombia as part of a delegation of international lawyers investigating abuses against human rights lawyers and trade unionists. She has given two seminars on the role of, and effect of, the International Criminal Court in Colombia. 


Memberships

Criminal Bar Association, Bar Human Rights Committee, Amnesty International, Reprieve, Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers.

Interests

Travelling to new and unusual places, languages, skiing, yoga, running. Currently training for a half marathon. 


Languages

Fluent French and Spanish (no interpreter needed for conferences). Basic Kiswahili.