Episode 82: Harriet Wistrich

In this week's episode, Sarah is joined by Harriet Wistrich who is the founder and director of the Centre for Women's Justice. Harriet previously worked as a solicitor with renowned civil liberties firm Birnberg Pierce for many years.

Harriet talks about her work,  primarily focusing on violence against women cases including the case of Emma Humphreys and Sally Challen as well as victims of serial rapist, John Worboys. Harriet’s new book, Sister in Law provides us with a fantastic in-depth look into Harriet’s legal career touched on in today’s recording.

Harriet’s book features as part of the Activist Lawyer Book Club and is available to purchase now!

 

Harriet is the founder and director of the Centre for Women’s Justice and a solicitor of 25 years experienced who worked for many years with renowned civil liberties firm, Birnberg Peirce Ltd. She is the winner of the Liberty Human Rights Lawyer of the Year award 2014, Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year 2018 for public law and Law Society Gazette personality of the year 2019.  She has acted in many high-profile cases around violence against women including on behalf of women who challenged the police and parole board in the John Worboys case, women deceived in relationships by undercover police officers and on behalf of women appealing murder convictions for killing abusive partners, most recently Sally Challen. She is also founder member of the campaign group, Justice for Women and trustee of the charity, the Emma Humphreys Memorial Prize. 

Among her notable cases are:

• acting for eight women who brought claims against the metropolitan police arising from being deceived in relationships with undercover police officers – recently resulting in an unprecedented apology and substantial compensation payments Dil & Ors v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis [2014] EWHC 2184 (QB) (02 July 2014)
• Acting for a vulnerable constituent of former Lib Dem member of parliament, Mike Hancock, who held him to account over sexually inappropriate conduct.
• acting for two rape victims of the notorious taxi driver John Woboys, and establishing the precedent at Court of Appeal level whereby the police failure to investigate was held to be a violation of Article 3 ECHR Commissioner of the Police for the Metropolis v DSD and NBV and Alio Koraou v Chief Constable of Manchester [2015] EWCA Civ 646.
• acting for two women detained at Yarl’s Wood who alleged they were sexually abused by detention centre employees
• acting for a victim of sex trafficking who was unlawfully removed to her home country Moldova where she was re-trafficked
• acting in inquest proceedings for the father of Eleanor de Freitas who killed herself on the eve of a trial where she was accused of perverting the course of justice by allegedly making a false allegation of rape
• acting for the family of Jean Charles de Menezes who was shot dead by Metropolitan police in July 2005
• acting for a number of men in claims arising from Britain’s complicity in their rendition and torture at Guantanamo Bay.
• acting for a number of women in successful appeals against their murder convictions including, Stacey Hyde, Christine Devaney, Diane Butler, Kirsty Scamp and Emma Humphreys