James Scobie QC and Catherine Oborne of Garden Court Chambers represented a 17-year-old boy who was charged with the murder of Stefan Appleton, in Nightingale Park, Islington in June 2015.
The case has been widely reported in the national media, including by the BBC, the Guardian and the Evening Standard.
Stefan Appleton was stabbed and killed by a "Zombie Killer" knife. The defendant had driven the stabber both to and away from the scene on a moped. The prosecution case was that this was a revenge attack for a stabbing which had taken place in the area two months earlier.
The defendant maintained that he had been searching for his co-defendant's bike at the time and the stabbing of the deceased was never meant to happen.
Following a five-week trial at the Central Criminal Court, the jury found the defendant not guilty of murder and he was discharged. His co-defendant, who had stabbed the deceased, was found not guilty of murder and convicted of manslaughter.
This is one of the first "joint enterprise" murder cases to be tried following the landmark Supreme Court judgment of Jogee.
James Scobie QC, leading Catherine Oborne, represented the defendant. James has since highlighted Catherine’s crucial role in finding two game-changing aspects to CCTV footage which the Crown and police had overlooked. Both James and Catherine are members of the Garden Court Chambers Crime Team, winners of the Legal 500 Crime Set of the Year 2015 award.
