International Women's Day 2019

Max Hill QC: "I’m extremely proud of the valuable contribution CPS staff make all year round but as part of International Women’s Day, it is right we celebrate the achievements of our female staff.

"The CPS has so many talented women bringing their skills and experience to deliver justice. Today we are pleased to highlight five female lawyers and the impressive stories of how they’ve successfully brought offenders to justice."

Lynette Woodrow

Lynette is the Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor for London South with responsibility for some of the most complex cases in the capital. She oversaw the prosecution of the UK’s first person to be convicted of a female genital mutilation (FGM) offence. A 37-year-old woman from north London committed the offence against her three year old daughter in August 2017 and was convicted at the Old Bailey last month. Lynette was the face of the CPS following the trial and was featured on the national news channels shining a light on the appalling physical and emotional impact FGM has on victims.

Rhiannon Jones

Rhiannon is a Senior Crown Prosecutor at West Midlands and was the reviewing lawyer for the landmark case of the tattooist who carried out the body modifications at his ‘Dr Evil’ studio. These included the removal of an ear, the removal of a nipple and the splitting of a tongue. Although there was consent from his clients, the defendant was not medically qualified. Rhiannon prepared a lengthy and detailed legal argument to the Crown Court, Court of Appeal and were refused leave to appeal to the Supreme Court. As a result, Brendan McCarthy pleaded guilty to three counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent on 12 February.

Karen Dubarry

Karen is a Senior Crown Prosecutor for CPS London North. She has been the reviewing lawyer for a number of high profile cases including a violent acid attack carried out by nine men in Dalston. The men had attacked an unknown victim, then turned on a bystander who was filming the scene. One of the attackers involved received a 20-year extended prison sentence for his part in the crime. Two others received sentences of 17+ years. Karen was instrumental in putting together the prosecution evidence against the defendants in this multi-handed case which resulted in convictions for all.

Lynsey O’Donnell

Lynsey is a Senior Crown Prosecutor from the East Midlands. She specialises in Crown Court cases and recently prosecuted the case of Artur Waszkiewicz. He was sentenced to 15 years in February for the robbery and manslaughter of 100-year-old Zofia Kaczan. Lynsey worked with the police from the outset, giving them lines of enquiry that helped identify Waszkiewicz as a suspect. There were no eye-witnesses or CCTV footage of the attack, but Lynsey prepared the case like a jigsaw, using evidence from all avenues to prove Waszkiewicz was the attacker.

Kate Mulholland

Kate is a Specialist Prosecutor in the London CPS Complex Casework Unit. In November she led the prosecution team against a UK Border Force official working with other men to smuggle drugs and firearms from France to the UK, which involved a number of complex jurisdictional issues. The men were found with the street value worth of £800,000 of heroin, £2.8m of cocaine and eight automatic pistols among other revolvers and ammunition. Kate and the team were able to disprove that they did not know the real contents of the package by surveillance, phone evidence, and the amount of drugs and weapons involved. The men were sentenced to a total of over 50 years' imprisonment.