Posted on 03/26/2021 9:58:11 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Patrick Harrington QC has worked on more than 250 homicide cases, including some of Wales' most high-profile murders. Early last year he was almost killed in a crash that left him in a coma for two months but he's already back in the courtroom
Just over a year ago one of Wales’ most esteemed barristers was involved in a high-speed crash on the M4 that smashed his BMW and his skull in equal measure.
Lying in a coma for the next two months, his wife and two adult children were warned that Patrick Harrington QC would unlikely recover his memory or speech if, indeed, he ever woke up at all.
Yet just a few months later Patrick was back in the courtroom doing what he does best and securing a guilty verdict from the jury during the murder trial of former Ospreys youth player Tom Carney.
For someone who was not expected to regain consciousness it’s an extraordinary recovery for a man with an even more extraordinary career.
"I remember the day because I was going to a dental appointment in Cardiff," said Patrick, settled on a high-backed chair in the drawing room of his Georgian-era house on the outskirts of Raglan in Monmouthshire.
"I was just before the Brynglas tunnels when my car went out of control and I crashed into the barrier and went down some steps. The next thing I remember is waking up two months later in the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff." He was, apparently, conscious when paramedics found him at the side of the motorway but he has no recollection of it at all.
Patrick had fractured his skull on both sides as well as his neck. Although he is home and has been back working since October he is waiting for an operation to reconstruct a part of his skull which is still missing.
"I still can’t stand up straight, or at least as much as I would like," he added.
Patrick has appeared in more than 250 homicide cases in a career spanning nearly 50 years Patrick has appeared in more than 250 homicide cases in a career spanning nearly 50 years (Image: Richard Swingler) As the 71-year-old lay in a coma his wife Susan, son Fergus, and daughter Rebecca were told to expect the worst after the crash in January 2020. But Patrick woke up unprompted one day in March with memory and speech intact, which doctors said was “extraordinary”.
"In fact they started using the term 'miraculous', which I think is a bit extreme," said Patrick. This is a man who seemingly doesn’t do drama or superlatives, at least when it's about himself. Perhaps because, having acted in 250 homicide cases, he’s seen it all and there’s not much left that will surprise him.
But anyone who’s watched Patrick in action knows that’s not true either – he is all about the drama and presentation and it's something he is in fact well-known for he admits. He is only too aware of the power of language and how performance can swing a jury.
“I’m still surrounded by colleagues who can’t grasp the language,” he says not disparagingly but in a way that shows he thinks they're missing a trick. He's not afraid to say "outrageous things" and enjoys the fact that it's become his "forte".
To illustrate the point he describes the trial of Ben Hope and Jason Richards who killed 17-year-old Aamir Siddiqi at his home in Cardiff after carrying out a contract killing on the wrong victim, in the wrong house, in 2010.
Patrick, acting for the prosecution at the trial at Swansea Crown Court in 2012, got up and said the killers exhibited “staggering incompetence” after being hired by a businessman to attack a man living in a nearby street. He addressed the jury and said: "It was evidently a cowardly attack, a brutal attack by two heroin-fuelled contract killers."
His words had been carefully chosen for maximum effect and they resonated far and wide beyond the courtroom with nearly every news outlet carrying his exact words in their headlines.
His starting point is to work out what's different about each case and what is going to be the highlight. "My ambition is always to get the jury on side," he said.
"To present the case and think things through so it's a note with the jury that stays with them. To think of a form of words that is going to be memorable."
In 2017 a colleague described Patrick as: "One of the best jury advocates in the UK in my opinion. Juries just love him. He plays the jury like a really good musician; he knows exactly what’s right for the jury, strips the case down to bare essentials whether prosecuting or defending a serious crime, and is very good at pretending to the jury that he’s just coming to terms with the facts of the case as the case is developing, even though you know he’s got an encyclopaedic knowledge of the case."
The comparison to a musician is not far off the mark – there was a time when Patrick was in an all-barrister band which they'd rather comically named Brief Encounter. They played Sixties rock mostly, Patrick said with a rare chuckle, and in another life he may well have been a rock star if law hadn't taken over.
His approach is one that has worked to great effect and, while it's impossible to list every case he's ever worked on here, it's fair to say he's worked on nearly every high-profile murder case in Wales in the past 40-odd years. His first ever murder case was in 1982, a year noted for a particularly harsh winter that forced many people to stay indoors and social care services to grind to a halt. He remembers it well, if only because he spent several days stranded at Geneva Airport after a ski trip. The result was a number of geriatric murders with seven homicides in south Wales alone.
Still a junior barrister then he was getting "more than a fair share" of the workload, he said. "I don't think I've been without a murder case since," he added.
His CV includes the trial of David Morris and the Clydach murders, Jeffrey Gafoor in the notorious Lynette White case, the Geraldine Palk murder trial, and the trial of killer Stephen Hough. Patrick came out on top in every single one.
His style works when he's defending too, although he doesn't ever say he's "got someone off" if he manages to obtain a verdict of manslaughter for a client instead of murder, for example.
"I'm pleased with the work I've done," he explained. "I use the word 'acquitted' rather than having got them off. I'm satisfied that the verdict has been reached but I never class it as a win or a loss.
"It's a job and I want to do it well. It's just the outcome and then you go on to the next one."
Even so, coming up against some of the most evil men and women in the country and listening to the depravity and evil must surely take its toll? Patrick brushes off such a suggestion and says he is able to "compartmentalise" his emotions. "Good or bad, emotions affect performance," he said.
"I try not to get emotionally involved in cases. Whether you develop a like or a dislike for a client or member of the opposition it can impair your judgement."
That was particularly hard, however, when it came to David Morris who was tried, and eventually found guilty, of murdering an entire family of four including two young girls in Clydach. However ever since his conviction in 1999 there have been doubts by some as to whether Morris was responsible.
"That was three generations of one family that were wiped out," Patrick said.
"I got to meet the extended family and you get to know them and see their dignity. They are grateful to you for trying to get justice and I feel very humble when I realise that dignity."
When it comes to that particular case he believes the media and public have been "unnecessarily biased" in favour of the defendant and has no doubt about whether the right verdict was reached.
"The story is better if you have an angle," he said about media attempts to portray a different perspective on the case.
It was the same with the Siddiqi case, he said. He marvelled at the use of CCTV footage by police to build their case against Richards and Hope and remembers it as a "brilliant investigation".
"But it was made harder by the family being so lovely," he said. "There were snippets in the case that hurt, like the fact that Aamir was certified dead in the same booth where his sister worked.
"It was a terrible crime by two awful men."
He met one of Aamir's sisters by chance in the Angel Hotel in Abergavenny years later and was saddened to learn the family had never returned to Ninian Park after the heinous crime.
As Patrick's career has developed and flourished so too have police techniques with DNA and digital records perhaps being the most instrumental in making or breaking a case.
"It used to be one fingerprint would be worth 12 witnesses," he said. "But now it's all CCTV, WhatsApp, and DNA."
None illustrates this better than the murder of 15-year-old Janet Commins, who was raped and strangled near her home in Flint in 1976.
It was a crime which shocked Wales at the time. Police acted quickly and Noel Jones, 18, who lived in a caravan with a travelling community three miles from Flint, was arrested. After being questioned he signed and dated two statements admitting he’d raped Janet and, during the struggle, she had died. In June 1976 he pleaded guilty to manslaughter at Mold Crown Court and was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment.
But they'd got the wrong man and it took another 40 years for police to catch the real killer thanks to advances in DNA and a bit of luck in finding a match. New forensic methods alerted police to a possible match: Stephen Anthony Hough, a 58-year-old local who'd been interviewed during the initial investigation.
Police decided to question to Noel Jones again. He told them he was part of the travelling community and was illiterate at the time.
In September 2016 Hough was arrested. He denied everything in police interviews but was charged with sexual assault and manslaughter. In July 2017 he pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Patrick acted as the defence barrister for Hough and ferociously cross-examined Jones in court, asking him: "Were you just making it up?” Jones replied: “I never did any of this.... These stories are not my words.”
Mr Harrington continued: “How did you think admitting murder was going to help you get out of there?”
Speaking at his home four years later, Patrick is critical of the original investigation and the way Jones was treated by police because of his background. He places little value on Jones' signed confession, which he says was signed after "appalling" treatment and after only half an hour of questioning by a very junior police officer.
His job was to represent Hough and that was tough, he admits. "He'd lived his life not having been charged with it (the murder)," he said.
"That was difficult because you're dealing with a 50-odd-year-old man accused of committing a crime when he was 15 years old. I'm trying to visualise this man now but the person being accused was actually a teenage boy. It was quite challenging for that reason, trying to go back to the standards of that day."
Patrick obtained a verdict of manslaughter over murder, which he said he was "pleased with" and was a good outcome for his client.
Part-way through the conversation Susan brings in a tray of freshly-brewed coffee and a tray of homemade biscuits. Pouring a cup for Patrick, she overhears him talking about compartmentalising his emotions and prompts him to talk about Howard Hughes.
Hughes was branded a paedophile and handed a minimum 50-year jail term after being convicted of the kidnap, rape, and murder of seven-year-old Sophie Hook in 1995.
Having acted for the defence Patrick is still uneasy by the final verdict and says he gets handwritten letters from Hughes, penned from his prison cell, on a regular basis.
"They are always signed 'from the innocent Howard Hughes'," said Patrick. Husband and wife share a doubt about whether Hughes is guilty, particularly Susan who is in charge of all Patrick's paperwork and deals with the bulk of his correspondence.
"I haven't looked at a bank statement in years, Susan sees to all that," Patrick admits.
"But Hughes was semi-literate at best when he was convicted. He's been a model prisoner for the 25 years he's been inside and he now writes in block capitals using quite a good vocabulary and near-perfect grammar.
"I rarely reply but he's still there in the background. It's the one that affects Susan because we get Christmas cards from him."
The couple, who've been married for nearly 50 years, met at Birmingham University when Susan was studying systems analysis and Patrick was studying law. Having worked for 24 years for International Computers Ltd as a computer scientist and bringing up their two children she is now Patrick's PA, he says, half-jokingly.
It can't be an easy job – he is a man in high demand, despite the fact he could be forgiven for thinking about retirement after half a century in the job. Plus he isn't short of hobbies and interests outside of his work which extend to rugby, cricket, tennis, skiing, classic cars, horse racing and, perhaps surprisingly, learning the double bass. He's even written a book and has two more "in gestation".
Sat in front of a roaring log fire in a room full of antique furniture and photos of family propped up in silver frames it feels a long way from his roots in Ebbw Vale, which he remembers as a traditional steel works town with full employment. His was a happy and carefree childhood and the young Patrick, who went to Ebbw Vale grammar school, dreamed of becoming an actor or a journalist.
“I didn’t do very well at school – I had lots of other things going on,” said Patrick. “We didn’t have a car or a telephone in the house but we had books and music.”
Even so he went on to study law and by the time he finished he'd decided the Bar was for him. Patrick was called to the Bar (Gray's Inn) in July 1973. He was just 23. He took silk – the award of Queen's Counsel (QC) – 20 years later.
During his pupillage, a 12-month training period that all aspiring barristers must complete, Patrick found his feet perhaps quicker than most. During one of his first cases, just five months in, he had been left in court to ask for an adjournment but instead was called by the judge to make the mitigation case for his client.
The judge was in a rush because he wanted to go horse racing that afternoon, said Patrick, and so he had no choice but to get up on his feet and make his first mitigation for a man accused of serious violence.
"I did do a good job," he remembers. In the following years he did a bit of everything, starting out in London but returning to Wales in 1974 where he practised from chambers in Cardiff.
He was appointed an Assistant Recorder in 1985 and a Recorder in 1991. After a successful first year in silk Patrick was invited to join the Chambers of Lord Williams of Mostyn QC at Farrar’s Building from where he has practised ever since, taking over as head of chambers in 2005.
"The Bar is probably the most socially mobile profession and that still is the case,” he said, adamant that anyone can achieve the same career trajectory even today.
Although he does add: "I was fortunate as it took off like a rocket and I worked with a lot of talented people."
There was work there to be done and money to be made and it has afforded him an enviable lifestyle, he admits. He downplays the fact that he often took on 10 to 12 cases at a time and 14-hour days were not, and still aren't, unusual. He's an early bird, he says, and he does most of his reading in the mornings.
It is ironic that the day before Patrick’s crash he’d been to see Tom Carney in prison and after just four days on the case it was adjourned to January 2021. Following his recovery Patrick simply picked up where he left off, albeit in a very different world to the one before the crash where coronavirus continues to play havoc with the justice system.
To have woken up without his memory or speech would've been a cruel blow for a man who is quite simply brilliant at both.
"It's terrible having a memory because you remember everything," he says. He is an incredibly intelligent man and he plucks names and dates out of the air with ease as he recalls his early years in the job and summarises key cases. His recollections are peppered with rich layers of detail and he can't help himself in giving more information than is required for context.
More than once he delves into a case before saying: "These are details you don't need but I can't stop myself."
Like the fact that Ffos Las is the only racecourse in the country that you can see the course in its entirety from any vantage point. There was a period where Patrick ran his own horse – Galloping Guns – with modest success.
"We enjoyed that enormously," he said, looking up as Susan walks in to check if he needs anything. "If I won the lottery I would have horses in training again. I loved the thrill of going to the races – it was exhilarating."
He's not a smiley man. That's not to say he isn't friendly – he really is and invites any question to be thrown at him. But there's a real sense he's sussed you out before you've even opened your mouth. It's easy to see why juries come round to his thinking or why murderers might dread a cross-examination in court.
Susan sees the case notes spread out on the table and there are times he tells her not to look at the pictures – some of which can be gruesome beyond imagination, she says as Patrick poses for pictures. I suspect she is the only one who ever truly knows what Patrick is really thinking.
"We've had a lot of fun over the years and have been very fortunate that we share the same hobbies," added Patrick. "I wouldn't have dreamed that we would've met so many interesting people along the way."
He knows he won't be continuing at his current work rate for much longer – indeed there is no real need for him to do so, apart from the fact that he genuinely loves his work. In recent years he's taken up more and more financial crime cases which he hasn't even touched on during our interview.
After his cranioplasty operation later this year perhaps it will be time to slow down and start those two books he's had planned for several years.
Although as he shows me out the door saying: "We haven't even scratched the surface" perhaps his next book should be about his own career and the extraordinary things that have played out in his life and in courtrooms across the country.
“even” is a horrible word to express inclusion.
This can't be true. The UK has some of the strictest gun control laws in the world.
I agree the word choice is not the best. I think they meant killers are not fearful, rather than non-killers should be fearful of him.
Of course, but I go this mental process of “even killers” vs “odd killers”... lol.
I even have a hard time using the term...
“even have” ??? ugh ;)
“His car went out of control”. (FTA).
‘Sounds like a lawyer’s excuse...
Is it possible, even remotely, that there is another way of killing people besides using a Semi Full Auto Machine Glock AR14 Turbo School Yard Sweeper? I mean, theoretically? If so, I’m sure the forensic geniuses who read us the news every night, and their ugly cousins in the print media surely would have discovered it, right?
I was thinking the same.
Not His fault.
10 to 1 he had been drinking.
Forget the wreck. It’s a miracle he survived the NHS.
Forget the wreck. It’s a miracle he survived the NHS.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.