Nadia Chbat

Areas of Practice

I joined chambers in 2000, and prosecute and defend in a wide range of cases, in the Crown and Appellate courts. With particular interest in and emphasis upon sexual offences, blue collar and violent crime, I have regularly appeared as both sole and junior counsel for both defence and prosecution in numerous cases.

Defence Experience

I have extensive experience in successfully defending clients against a wide variety of criminal allegations, specifically allegations of sexual and violent offending. I have often instructed to defend more vulnerable clients, such as those with mental health difficulties or young defendants.

I have been Leading Junior counsel in a variety of cases, as well as leading junior to Queens Counsel.

In the last few years I have successfully defended as Leading Junior, in a number of conspiracy cases.
Most notably, a multi handed Conspiracy to Supply class A drugs, where the defendant faced significant evidence against him. The case involved the use of extensive surveillance, both audio and mobile surveillance across in the UK and in Europe. There were six defendants, some of whom pleaded guilty. The Crown sought to use the close friendships my client had with many of those guilty co defendants, as well as the recording of personal conversations held in his vehicle to obtain a conviction. There were no Class A drugs seized. The surveillance evidence was considerable, spanning over ten months in total. There was video footage which accompanied all the observations which was significant evidence for the jury to consider. The defendant had been in custody awaiting the trial for over 12months before the verdict. With the assistance of my junior Gavin Holme, and my solicitors Woodfines, the defendant was acquitted after a four month trial.

I recently, as Leading Junior, represented a man in a multi handed Conspiracy to Import a Quantity of Heroin worth £1.5-2 million. The drugs were physically imported into the country by my client and his brother in law, concealed in a spare fuel tank of a german registered DAF lorry. My client maintained no knowledge of the fuel tanks contents as it was his brothers DAF Lory. The trial at Reading Crown court involved five other defendants. There was a further re-trial in respect of my client. The case involved a high degree of surveillance evidence and numerous PII hearings.

At Leicester Crown court, a case originally due to be dealt with by Leading Counsel, involved a young father of 18yrs of age accused of sexual assault. The child was the defendants young daughter who was a toddler, 18months old. I successfully defended the young man as junior counsel alone. The injury, age of the child and the circumstances of the injury meant it was a highly challenging case for all involved. In addition, the circumstances where such that the defence were not able to call their own expert concerning the cause of the injury. The defence involved careful and thorough cross examination of the Crown's consultant paediatrician. The defendant was acquitted unanimously within two hours.

I have been led by Mr Stephen Williamson Q.C at Leicester Crown court, in respect of a case of manslaughter, carried out during the course of a burglary, This case involved a number of identification issues as well as legal argument in respect of causation, participation and knowledge, as there were four defendants in the vehicle which drove away from a failed burglary when the householder was near to it, tragically causing his death.

I have also had the novel experieince of being led by a solicitor advocate, Mr Niall Quinn, as he was then, although now he has achieved the honour of Queen's Counsel. This case involved the death of a man who had been punched by a defendant, who believed he had hurt his child. The deceased was taken to hospital and there were hours of CCTV footage showing him walking around the hosptial at various times. I was in fact the second junior to deal with the case. I came into the case with one month before trial and had to ensure the case was trial ready in a short space of time. The defendant was aquitted.

At Inner London Crown court, acting as junior counsel I was involved in the defence of a taxi driver, accused of a multi handed conspiracy to supply £750, 000 of Heroin. The conspiracy involved the supply to undercover police officers and there was a large amount of surveillance material, both audio and visual to assimilate and consider, as well as numerous PII hearings. The police investigation was conducted by the Serious Organised Crime Agency. The defendant was a taxi driver with poor English. He gave evidence via an interpreter and was later was unanimously acquitted, at the end of a four month trial.

On a further occasion, I was instructed to defend a father accused of historic sexual abuse of his natural daughter going back to the 1970's. The defendant was a man with severe mental health issues and I dealt with cases for a number of months before Leading Counsel was instructed. I drafted a skeleton argument in respect of an abuse of process argument, which Mr John Jenkins Q.C adopted and successfully argued at Guildford Crown court.

I consider myself to be an advocate committed to presenting a high standard on behalf of the all those for whom I am instructed. I have handled a variety of different cases, some involving complex areas of law. I have prosecuted and defended cases with, in my view, sensitivity and sound judgement

Prosecution Experience

I have prosecuted the full range of criminal offences including attempted Murder, Rape, Kidnapping, Arson with intent, serious drug offences, and serious violence and wounding. I have prosecuted numerous jury trials involving serious assaults, and mulitple defendants The majority of the sexual assault cases have involved young child complainants, often with more than one complainant. Some of the cases I have prosecuted dealt with vunerable adult complainants suffering from some disability, or involved the immediate family.

I receive frequent instructions to serious cases involving sexual offences against children or other vulnerable victims. In the past year I have prosecuted historic offences of rape, some over 30 years old, sexual activity with a child, sexual activity in breach of trust, incest, bigamy and offences involving indecent images. I am very experienced in such areas and am often called upon by the Crown to provide advice pre-charge. I have had extensive experience of dealing with contested issues of disclosure, bad character, previous sexual history. I am well aware of the sentencing regime available for convicted individuals and have often been called upon by the bench to outline the powers and provisons available, particularly in the infacy of such prosecutions . In addition, I have also appeared before the Court of Appeal on behalf of the Crown in such cases.

Education & Qualifications
Sheffield Hallam University 1991-1993
LLB 2:1

Inns of Court School of Law 1995
Very Competent

Called to the Bar 1996

Professional Courses

Serious Sexual Offences/ Criminal Justice Act 2003
Sexual Offences Act 2003 Proceeds of Crime 2002
Subscription to Criminal Law Week (weekly update digest of cases)

In addition I have prepared and delivered a number of lectures on sexual offences, indecent images of children and sentencing provisions for such cases, to both chambers and my principal instructing solicitors.

Professional Memberships

Criminal Bar Association
Thames Valley Bar Mess