Dexter Dias QC

Practice

Dexter Dias QC is an award-winning barrister who has been instructed in some of the biggest cases involving murder, terrorism and human rights of recent years. Additionally, he has played a pivotal role in public inquiries (such as the Mubarek Inquiry) and inquests that are watersheds in the developing law of the land. His distinctive rights-based style of advocacy, marked by a passionate commitment to fundamental freedoms, resulted in his winning of the 2009 TMG award for Outstanding Contribution to Advocacy and Justice, and being a previous finalist in Liberty's and JUSTICE's prestigious Human Rights Lawyer of the Year Award, short-listed by a panel of judges including Baroness Hale of Richmond from the House of Lords (Supreme Court) and Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty. He was nominated for "his outstanding commitment to the rule of law and justice for all; for his deep devotion to ensure that the voices of the weakest in society are heard."

*** During the academic year 2010-11 Dexter Dias QC will take an MPhil at Jesus College, Cambridge, with an emphasis on developing specific research interests that have emerged from his cases, and which are of immense importance to him ***

Dexter is one of the few barristers to be recommended in two categories by both major professional directories. Chambers & Partners recommends him as a Leader of the Bar in both Crime and Civil Liberties. He is noted as being "nothing if not determined to seek out the best result for his client", has established an "excellent reputation", is known for "his unwillingness to lay down until he has expended every last ounce of effort", has "a great track record" particularly in cases involving terrorism, and is also recognised for his work in public inquiries and inquests. The Legal 500 directory also recommends him in two categories: Human Rights and Crime, where he comes "strongly recommended". Additionally, he has been selected as one of the "leading lights in the UK legal profession", who has been identified "as being highly recommended" in criminal law by the Legal Experts Directory 2009 and 2010. On being appointed Queen's Counsel, he was immediately recommended by Chambers & Partners professional directory in the New Silk category, and is now recommended as a leading Queen's Counsel in both Crime and Civil Liiberties.

Dexter's reputation for human rights work placed him at the forefront of the recent wave of terrorist trials that have mapped new territory in the balance between national security and civil liberties. He was leading counsel in the 'Soldier Beheading Plot' case (Operation Gamble), one of the first prosecutions under the 'duty to inform' provisions of the new Terrorism Act. He conducted the 'Terrorist Training Camps' case (linked to 21.7 London bombings) - the first prosecution under the Terrorism Act 2006 (Operation Over Amp), where he appeared for the principal defendant. He provided emergency advice in the matter of O, a case involving the detention conditions for those convicted of terrorist offences. During 2008-9 he advised and appeared in the Bristol suicide bombing plot terrorist case (Operation Vulcanise). Since taking Silk, he has been instructed in a number of high profile murder trials and his expertise has been sought in several complex appeals.

During 2009-10, he conducted a five-month trial at the Old Bailey in which his client was acquitted of murder, attempted murder and manslaughter.

In the summer of 2010, Dexter played a vital role in an internationally reported arms protest case, cross-examining the chief prosecution witness for four days, and in which he helped develop the defence of preventing war crimes. All the defendants were acquitted.
Read the national news story for more.

Recent Professional Rankings and Recommendations

• Chambers UK 2011: Recommened Silk (Civil Liberties): Leader of the Bar
• Chambers UK 2011: Recommended Silk (Crime): Leader of the Bar
• Legal Experts Directory (2010): Highly recommended in Criminal Law
• Legal 500 (2010): Recommended Queen's Counsel (Human Rights)
• Black Letter Law (2010)
• Chambers UK 2010: Recommended Silk (Civil Liberties): Leader of the Bar
• Chambers UK 2010: Recommend Silk (Crime): Leader of the Bar
• Black Letter Law (2009)
• Legal Experts Directory (2009): Highly recommended in Criminal Law
• Chambers & Partners 2009: Leader of the Bar (Crime)
• Chambers & Partners 2009: Leader of the Bar (Civil Liberties)
• Legal 500 (2009): Recommended Leader in Human Rights
• Legal 500 (2009): Recommended Leader in Crime

Recent Cases

Dexter was leading counsel in the landmark inquest into the death of Gareth Myatt, aged 15. At the time of his death, Gareth was the youngest child to die in custody and the only child to die following restraint. This was one of the longest death in custody inquests in legal history, and the jury returned an unprecedented verdict, devastatingly implicating Home Office and Youth Justice Board failures as causative of this child's death. The inquest judge wrote to the Secretary of State for Justice stating it would be 'wholly unforgivable' not to learn from the failures exposed during the inquest. His Honour Judge Pollard specified 34 Actions he believed should be taken to prevent other children dying in custody. The judge also stressed to the Home Secretary a theme pressed by Dexter throughout the inquest: the absolute need to 'listen to the voice of the child'.

Click here to read HHJ Pollard's Report to the Secretary of State for Justice. Click here to read the jury's Narrative Verdict.

Dexter was instructed a leading counsel on a £20 million fraud in 2008 (Operation Sunbird). He was also counsel in the investigation into the death of Azrar Ayub, a young Asian man who died following restraint and emergency tranquillisation in a secure psychiatric unit. The jury returned a highly critical narrative verdict, and explicitly accepted Dexter's submission that facts surrounding the death of this young man had been concealed from them. He worked (pro bono) on behalf of the bereaved father and the Victoria Climbie Foundation in the Serious Case Review into the murder of two children by their clinically disturbed mother. The Review accepted that health professionals had failed to assess the risk this deeply disturbed mother presented to her children.

In summer 2007, as leading counsel he secured an acquittal in Operation Medina, a conspiracy to commit armed robbery (an Operation Trident case). He presented argument to the Court of Appeal on a full appeal against conviction in a triple murder.
In 2006, he was leading counsel on a serious conspiracy to kidnap, falsely imprison and blackmail (Operation Fronton). He has in the recent past been instructed in cases involving multiple murder, conspiracy to pervert the course of justice in a murder trial, arms dealing, international human trafficking, animal rights and gang-related execution.

Additional Information

• Law Commission: Dexter was consulted by the Law Commission working group reviewing Fitness to Plead, and made a major contribution to drafting of the new assessment protocol that is currently undergoing field trials.
• Ministerial Council on Deaths in Custody: Independent Advisory Panel: Dexter has been appointed to the Stakeholders Group of the IAP, chaired by Lord Harris, whose function is to provide independent expertise and advice to work to create safer systems of custody and reduce the incidence of prison deaths.
• Chair, Bar Equality Training: From January 2010, Dexter has been Chair of the Bar's Equality Training sub-committee, whose mission is to promote equality training and understanding of gender, race and disability rights throughout the profession, following Lord Neuberger's report on Entry to the Bar: the ambition is to create a profession which is fairer and more representative of society. Dexter has actively contributed to the committee's work since 2008.
• Bar Standards Board: appointed from 2008 to the profession's regulatory body (Standards Committee).
• Governor, INQUEST: Dexter is very proud to have been appointed a Governor of the charity INQUEST, the only organisation in the UK to provide free advice and support to bereaved families following contentious deaths in custody. While Dexter has been a Governor, the charity has won the prestigious Longford Prize, for outstanding work in the field of penal and social reform which demonstrates qualities of humanity, courage, persistence and originality.
• Parliament: contributor to briefing on the Coroner's & Justice Bill 2009, which in part led to Government shelving of plans for 'secret inquests' into controversial deaths involving the State.
• Annual Bar Conference: In November 2009, Dexter was invited to speak at the profession's major conference of the year. He used the opportunity to highlight the alarming number of women dying in prison and the urgent need for a fundamental reappraisal of the Government's approach to women in custody following the report by Baroness Corston.
• Patron, UNLOCK: Dexter has been appointed a patron of UNLOCK, the independent charity that works with reformed offenders to assist them putting their lives back on track so they can fulfill their potential through equality of opportunity, and an understanding of their rights and social responsibilities.
• Public funding: appointed to Bar Council committee, convened by Chairman of Bar, to oppose Government plans that would destroy the fabric of legal services. Dexter's legal analysis of compliance and equality issues constituted a significant part of the Bar's official response.
• Human Rights and Equality Training: Dexter is strongly committed to the project of promoting Human Rights and Equality, and regularly provides free training in these areas to barristers chambers, Specialist Bar Associations and solicitors firms.
• Victim's Advocate Scheme: volunteer counsel in the pilot scheme to provide an enhanced voice for the families of victims of crime.
• BBC: Dexter was chosen by the BBC to represent the Defence and Human Rights Bar on Radio 4's factual programme 'Between Ourselves'. He appeared with Nicholas Hilliard QC, and the programme was selected as one the BBC's Picks of the Week.
• Ambassador, Make Justice Work: Dexter is delighted to have been appointed Ambassador of Make Justice Work, an innovative campaign aimed at making the criminal justice system fairer and more effective.

Notable Cases

From 2004 Dexter was counsel for the bereaved family in the Zahid Mubarek Inquiry before the Hon. Mr Justice Keith, the much-publicised public inquiry into the Prison Service following the racist murder of a young offender at Feltham Young Offenders Institution: see Lord Lester & David Pannick QC, Human Rights Law & Practice (2nd ed.), p121-2. During the entirety of Phase 2, Dexter represented Zahid's family on his own. Having now reported, the Inquiry has been hailed as being comparable in importance to the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, and proposes significant reforms to the prison system to make it safer, more racially and religiously tolerant, and humane.

Dexter's scathing indictment of the failures in the prison service was widely reported in the national press. The Inquiry has led to the hugely successful play, Gladator Games, which The Times describes as "a work of real political importance; painful to witness, but entirely essential". The first main action of the play is Dexter's speech. He was invited to deliver the opening speech at the inaugural Zahid Mubarek Memorial Lecture at the Theatre Royal, where he shared a platform with former HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, Lord Ramsbotham. He has also been deeply involved in setting up a prison reform trust foundation with Zahid's family and the independent Monitoring Group. In consultation with the Safer Custody and Diversity Groups in the Home Office he formulated plans for rolling out independent helplines on every landing across the prison estate. Dexter worked pro bono on a committee set up to scrutinise and effect the implementation of the 88 recommendations of the Mubarek Inquiry. He has also been invited by one of Mr Justice Keith's specialist advisers, Bobby Cummines FRSA, to be a Patron of the Unlock charity for Reformed Offenders.

Click here to visit the Zahid Mubarek Inquiry Website. Click here to read Mr Justice Keith's Final Inquiry Report. Click here to read Dexter's address to the national prison reform conference.

In summer 2006 he appeared in a gang-related triple murder execution case at the Old Bailey, which was regarded by senior officers in Operation Trident as one of the most brutal investigated.

During the first half of 2006, he appeared in a five-month murder trial at Bristol Crown Court, which stemmed from the biggest investigation by Avon & Somerset Police (Operation Aragon - linked with the Met's Operation Yigo). His client was acquitted of all counts of murder and conspiracy to murder.

In February 2006, Dexter represented the family of a young black woman, Edita Pomell, who was found dead in HMP Brockhill in suspicious circumstances, amid allegations of her having being racially abused and sexually harassed, and having suffered physical violence from prison staff. Despite the Prison Service's claims that Edita's death was a suicide, the jury returned the Open Verdict that Edita's family had fought many years for. Further, Dexter persuaded the Coroner to allow the jury to provide a narrative on several points of pressing public interest concerning the treatment of young women in this prison. The jury provided a scathing assessment of the level of care provided by the Prison Service. Click here to see a summary of the jury's narrative verdict.

Dexter changed the law of the land with the defining Alton Manning inquest, securing the first verdict of unlawful killing against a private British prison, proving that a young black inmate was killed by prison officers. He represented the deceased inmate's family in this protracted inquest on a pro bono basis - something that was said by Lord Bingham (then Lord Chief Justice) to do great credit to the profession. He also helped prove that the subsequent decision of the Director of Public Prosecutions not to prosecute the officers was unlawful, irrational and legally 'perverse'. The case underlined in UK law the rights of the family of victims to have rigorous scrutiny of deaths in State custody, applying the European Convention on Human Rights: see Professor HWR Wade's Administrative Law (9th ed), p524. The exposure of the police failings in the following investigation has led to major beneficial changes, culminating in the ACPO protocol of February 2006 for the investigation of deaths in State custody.

In 2004, Dexter appeared in the world's biggest diamond robbery case, the multi-million pound 'heist' from Graff's Jewellers, New Bond Street. He also appeared in a $100 million international fraud which involved the US Treasury Department.

In 2003, he secured the acquittal of 'Kaish', a singer in the So Solid Crew. In doing so, he helped cast doubt upon one of the world's foremost forensic lip-reading experts. She is no longer used by the Crown. This led to the BBC programme on the case. He also effected the dropping of the murder case against his client at the Central Criminal Court when his detailed analysis of CCTV from the Unused Material proved that his client must have been innocent.

In 2002 he was leading counsel on a four-month trial concerning a massive importation of heroin from the continent. He was instructed in an attempted murder of a police officer and won an alleged gangland execution case at the Old Bailey.

In 2001, he conducted an inquest into the worrying death of a young black man after a high-speed police pursuit, a case which exposed serious flaws in the Met's monitoring of and policy towards high-speed vehicular pursuit. He was also instructed in an alleged 'Taliban-inspired' murder. It was a four-handed cut-throat defence - only his client was acquitted.

In 2000, he conducted a trial at the Central Criminal Court which uncovered corruption and malpractice in the Immigration Service at Gatwick Airport.

In 1999, Dexter was counsel in the landmark GM crops case, the winning of which led a moratorium and governmental rethink on commercial testing.

In 1996/7 he was counsel in one of the biggest investigations by the Met's anti-Yardie taskforce. He secured acquittals on all counts of murder.

In 1994 Dexter acted in the Security Guard murder, which involved the biggest reward ever offered by the Greater Manchester Police. His client was acquitted of murder.

In 1993 he won acquittals in one of the most notorious of murder cases in the North in recent times - the Penny Black murder in Manchester.

In 1991 and 1992 Dexter helped expose corruption at Stoke Newington Police Station, winning cases that, along with others, led to one of the biggest modern police corruption investigations, Operation Jackpot. Jackpot investigated police corrupt practices, theft and conspiracy to pervert the court of justice. The Stoke Newington drugs squad was disbanded. One of the officers eventually went to prison for ten years.

In 1990 and 1991 he participated in all the major Poll-tax demonstration cases, securing the acquittal of Neil Fernandez, the man who allegedly 'torched the Porsche' - according to the front page of most national tabloids. The police officer in the case was referred to the DPP for perjury. Dexter was also counsel in the largest riot trial, which ran five months. He secured an acquittal.

Dexter started his legal career defending Anti-Apartheid protestors, CND, poll-tax demonstrators, and hippies fighting for the right to dance naked around Stonehenge. After winning the last-mentioned case, he was invited to join his lay clients at the next solstice. He graciously declined.

Publications and Media

As well as having been published extensively on legal and policy topics in the national and legal press, Dexter Dias is also an internationally published novelist with bestsellers in the UK and abroad. His first novel, the thriller, FALSE WITNESS, was a top 20 bestseller in the UK. He has followed it up with four further globally published novels. He has been published by Time Warner in the US. His books have been translated into Japanese, Dutch, German and Finnish. ABOVE THE LAW was a number two bestseller in South Africa. His fifth novel, POWER OF ATTORNEY, was a WH Smith book of the month. Several of his books have been optioned for film and television.

Activities and Interests

Dexter is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He is also a Friend of the Chapel and Choir of King's College, Cambridge.

Profile updated August 2010

Year of Call

Queen's Counsel

Education

Languages

Send Email

Telephone

Practice Areas

Publications / Articles