Roger Smart led Karen Robinson in the successful prosecution of Cameron McFly for the "brutal, senseless and cowardly" murder of a vulnerable victim whom he had lured to a darkened alley before carrying out a sustained assault upon him.
The prosecution relied upon the product of many hours of detailed examination of CCTV evidence, telephone cell-siting of the defendant's mobile telephone, and an extensive forensic examination that revealed highly significant connections to the scene of the offence.
The defendant sought to advance the partial defence of diminished responsibility, relying upon expert assessments close to the date of trial. The prosecution examined a great deal of material charting the defendant's previous medical history. The jury heard from two leading psychiatrists and a psychologist who were called upon the issue of diminished reponsibility before rejecting the defendant's case that he was suffering from an abnormality of mind at the time of the killing such that it would reduce his liability from murder to manslaughter. In sentencing Cameron McFly HHJ Worsley Q.C. observed that the assault was "violent, extravagant, gratuitous and senseless" and that the defendant was a "volcano waiting to erupt".
Read media report HERE