Melanie Winter is a specialist criminal practitioner and prosecutes and defends a broad spectrum of serious offences.

 

She has particular skill in the handling of vulnerable or mentally handicapped defendants or complainants and has good experience in dealing with special measures cases.

 

The range of cases in which she has been instructed include arson, drug trafficking, rape and other serious sexual offences, serious offences of violence and fraud.  She has a particular interest in fraud and has been instructed on complex mortgage frauds and conspiracies to defraud.  She has also been instructed to prosecute confiscation hearings.

 

She has been instructed as junior counsel in conspiracy to supply drugs, money laundering, armed robbery and serious sexual offences involving the abuse of a complainant with learning difficulties.

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Cases

R v Gould and Others (2006)  Prosecuting junior counsel in case involving the systematic sexual abuse of a woman with learning difficulties over a time span in excess of twenty years.  There were six defendants, four of which also had learning difficulties .  The indictment contained thirty nine counts and was drafted under both the old and the new Sexual Offences Acts.  Many complex issues had to be dealt with including twenty two files of disclosure and expert reports on mental health and the implications under the new statute.  Unique special measures were negotiated to assist with the victim’s acute problems.



R v Edaghese (2006)  Prosecuting counsel in a rape trial heard at the Central Criminal Court and involved the examination of a young witness.  Defendant absconded at close of prosecution case.



R v Carty and Others (2005)  This case involved four defendants who targeted the elderly and vulnerable in order to defraud them.  This case started on 4 April and due to the time span and the deteriorating health and recollection of many of the victims the new hearsay provisions were argued in full.  The indictment reflected a period of two and a half years of offending behaviour and contained eighteen counts.  Convictions secured.



R v Hill (2006)  Rape case involving two teenage defendants and a teenage victim in which the issues centered around whether or not the victim was conscious at the time of the commission of the offence.  Section 41 arguments were made at length.



R v  Dawkins (2004)  This case was a mortgage fraud involving the dishonest obtaining of numerous mortgages on ex local authority properties under beneficial schemes and obtaing mortgages by making false representations.  The indictment covered a period of over eight years.



R v Salako (2004)  This case was a fraud spanning a  period of seven years and involving the dishonest securing of secure tenancy agreements and mortgages under a council ‘right to buy’ scheme. 

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