Kim Jenkins predominantly defends. She enjoys a varied and extensive practice covering all areas of serious crime. She is a leading junior who has expertise in murder, serious violence, sexual offences, child abuse (both recent and historic), organised crime, drugs and fraud.
She is very experienced in dealing with vulnerable persons, both prosecution witnesses and defendants. She has represented a broad spectrum of defendants including those suffering from a range of mental health issues and learning difficulties. She assisted as a tutor at the CBA lectures held to introduce the vulnerable witness legislation. She is also one of a limited number of defence practitioners to have experience of using a Home Office Registered Intermediary to assist a defendant in both understanding and participating in the case.
She is known to deal with cases where cultural and ethnic issues arise with sensitivity and insight.
Recent Cases
Violence
R v Bradley Tompkins
2 young defendants accused of the attempted murder of a member of a gang who gate-crashed a party. After a 2-week trial both were acquitted.
[Name withheld]
The attempted murder of 3 young children by their mother. The defendant was alleged to have on 2 occasions sedated and gassed her children whilst they sat in the family car. There was some history of mental health problems but the defendant was deemed fit to plead and following much careful discussion she pleaded guilty. This was a borderline case where the court was initially minded to impose a lengthy custodial sentence as the degree of the defendant’s mental health problems and prognosis were in dispute. In the end, after hearing evidence and submissions, the court was persuaded to deal with the defendant under the Mental Health Act.
R v Smith
Aggravated Burglary. A woman woke to find a gang in her home. She was assaulted and threatened with a knife whilst the house was ransacked. Prior to this her husband had been called out on a false call. He was attacked by 3 armed men, pistol whipped and detained whilst his house keys were taken. These were used to gain access to his home. Fingerprint evidence linked the defendant to the premises. He was the only suspect charged. After a trial he was acquitted.
Child Abuse [case names not disclosed]
Her work in this area includes child cruelty involving serious life threatening assaults on children. This area requires experience of seeking third party disclosure of social service records and the records of the Family Court proceedings. Causation is often the main issue requiring the calling and challenging of expert evidence. These are highly emotive cases where there is often as much of a dispute between the parents (co-defendants) as there is with the prosecution. Cut throat defences are often a feature in these cases.
Sexual Offences [case names not disclosed]
Cases covered during the course of this year include:
- A series of trials of a defendant accused of the violent stranger rape of a number of female students
- A multi-handed male rape. This case involved the alleged use of “date rape” drugs
- The historic rape of a girl with mental health problems by her father
- The multi handed trial of a paedophile ring accused of 20 years of historic abuse within an extended family. The defendant had severe learning difficulties that resulted in the use of an intermediary to assist the defendant throughout the trial.
- An allegation of rape against a 12-year-old boy. In this last case Kim launched a judicial review against the CPS which assisted in bringing about the cessation of the proceedings.
Kim has also acted on behalf of the Medical Defence Union in a case alleging sexual assault against one of its members.
Fraud
R v Khater
She acted as leading junior in a large credit card fraud where the proceeds obtained through the cloning and theft of cards nationwide were linked to the funding of criminal/terrorist organizations abroad.
R v Saunders
She has most recently acted as junior counsel on behalf of a sub-contractor to Network Rail in a “ghosting fraud”.
