Richard Parry

Richard began his career in 1986 as a solicitor’s clerk; a year later he was at the Old Bailey assisting in the defence of one of the 6 people accused of the murder of PC Blakelock. He trained at a law firm in Central London and qualified in 1994. He became a Duty Solicitor shortly after, and in 2006 he gained Higher Rights of Audience in the Crown Court.

He has worked across the whole range of criminal cases from the most serious allegations of terrorism, murder, rape and robbery through firearms, fraud, drugs and public order offences to less serious matters of assault, criminal damage and driving offences.

He also has experience of civil litigation including civil actions against the police, judicial review in the High Court, chancery and contract cases, and more recently, cash seizure cases under s295 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

He has been involved in extradition cases and has experience of inquests, in particular of a death at the hands of the police firearms unit, SO19. He has conducted cases before the Parole Board and at a Court Martial in Germany was once given the honorary rank of Captain in the British Army. He has taken cases to the Court of Appeal, the House of Lords Judicial Committee (now the Supreme Court) and the European Court of Human Rights.

Richard takes a particular interest in drug cases and has a good working relationship with Release, the national drugs charity. He is an acknowledged specialist in the field of cannabis cultivation cases, and the medical use of cannabis. He has spoken on the issue on national TV and radio, and at Trafalgar Square, and made submissions to the Home Affairs Select Committee on drug policy. He also has been involved in giving legal advice to owners of “head shops” of the Alternative Traders Association, and has been involved in successfully defending prosecutions brought under the Medicines Act 1968 and section 9 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.

His  most recent interest is in cases involving ‘entheogens’ derived from plants, cacti and fungi, commonly imported from South America. Together with Henry Blaxland QC and Ben Cooper he succesfully argued on behalf of a client that a prosecution against a person accused of possession of dried cacti be stayed as an abuse of the processes of the court.

As an adjunct mainly to his drugs cases he has developed a significant caseload in defending confiscation proceedings brought under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Richard also has a long involvement in public order cases arising from demonstrations, having worked with the Hackney Community Defence Association in the 1990s, and defended protesters from N30 in 1998, through Mayday 1999 to 2001, the Anti-Bush demonstration in 2003 through to cases from G20 in 2009 and currently the student protests of 2010.

He contributed to the debate held by the London Assembly’s Human Rights Committee over policing tactics, and has visited the Metropolitan Police training facility in Gravesend as well as HMIC forums on policing public disorder and supports the Right to Protest Forum.

He also represented the interests in the UK and Italy of 2 demonstrators injured by the riot police at the G8 protest in Genoa, 2001.They were subsequently cleared of any criminal charges whilst, at the same time, several senior police officers were convicted of various offences partly based on the testimony they gave.