London South

Lionel Idan, Chief Crown Prosecutor

Lionel was called to the Bar in 1996 and prosecuted and defended before joining the CPS in 2005 as a rape and domestic violence specialist.

In 2007, Lionel was appointed a District Crown Prosecutor with responsibility for one of the boroughs in London and in 2009 he was appointed a Senior District Crown Prosecutor with responsibility for one of the six London districts.

During this period Lionel was also the pan-London lead for Domestic Violence and for the Olympics in 2012. He has a passion for championing the rights and justice for victims and witnesses and has previously written and delivered a CPD-approved training course on victimless prosecutions.

In 2014, Lionel acted as the Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS London and was recognised in the CPS London Awards for his outstanding contribution to the Area. He was also appointed a Disclosure Gateway Reviewer and has conducted disclosure reviews on some of London's most complex and high-profile cases.

In 2015, Lionel was appointed as the Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS West Midlands and was responsible for successfully rolling out the Transforming Summary Justice programme across the region's magistrates' courts. Lionel was also appointed the regional lead for Hate Crime.

Between 2016 and 2018, while overseeing the Area’s Crown Court Complex Casework and RASSO units, Lionel also led the only national cross-government agency project on Domestic Abuse which developed and successfully implemented the DA Best Practice Framework across the country.

In 2019, Lionel spent time as Deputy Head of the national Specialist Fraud Division which handles the largest and most complex economic crime cases across the country.

In 2020, he was appointed the Chief Crown Prosecutor for London South and subsequently took up the role of CPS National lead for Hate Crime, a role which sees Lionel working in strong partnership with the NPCC, local CPS Areas and forces, NGOs and community groups in order to raise awareness, promote best practice and improve the joint criminal justice response to Hate Crime across all strands.

Cate Baccas, Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor

Cate is the DCCP for the Magistrates' Court unit in CPS London South.

David Malone, Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor

David took up the appointment of Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor (‘DCCP’) for London South, with specific responsibility for Crown Court cases, in 2021. He moved to leading the Area's Complex Casework Unit and Rape and Serious Sexual Offences team in September 2024.

David was called to the Bar in 1998 and is a leading barrister with over 20 years’ successful practice at the self-employed Criminal Bar. He served as Head of Chambers before joining one of the leading criminal law sets in the country in 2013. David has provided advice and representation (both for the prosecution and defence) in serious and complex criminal cases. He is a Grade 4 criminal advocate (the highest CPS grade) and is approved to prosecute on the following CPS Specialist Panels: Counter Terrorism; Special Crime Group; Fraud and the Rape and Serious Sexual Offences (RASSO) List. In addition, he has been appointed to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) Prosecution List (Panel A), the highest SFO grade.

Immediately prior to taking up his first role in London South, David successfully served for two years as Deputy Head of the Specialist Fraud Division (SFD). In doing so, he was the first and only self-employed barrister to be seconded to a CPS Central Casework Division as a Deputy Head of Division. He was also the SFD National Lead for the National Crime Agency and the Metropolitan Police Service. In 2021, he won the Outstanding Leadership and Outstanding Innovation Awards for the SFD.

David has been commended by the General Council of the Bar for his pro bono work in the field of victims’ rights.  
He is the current Chair of the CPS Social Mobility Working Group. In his own time, David volunteers as a School Governor for a state funded secondary school in South London. In the past, he has volunteered at HMP Brixton and for the Centrepoint Homeless Charity in London.

Jonathan Wettreich, Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor

Jonathan is the DCCP for the Crown Court Unit in CPS London South.

He started his career as a Police Officer within the Metropolitan Police Service. He qualified as a Solicitor in 2009 after securing a training contract with Her Majesty’s Court and Tribunal Service. He provided advice on questions of law practice, procedure and sentencing to District Judges, lay Justices and other court users in the areas of family, criminal, civil litigation, youth and magisterial law.

He joined the Crown Prosecution Service in London in May 2014 as a District Crown Prosecutor and was promoted in 2017 to Senior District Crown Prosecutor. In early 2021 Jonathan was appointed as the temporary Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor in the East of England and looked after the Crown Court and RASSO teams.

In November 2021 he was appointed Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor for the CPS Yorkshire and Humberside Magistrates’ Court team holding the regional portfolio for Violence against Women and Girls and Domestic Homicide Reviews. He returned to London in June 2024 as the Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor for London South’s Crown Court and Serious Violence and Organised Crime Unit.

Kirsty Hipwood, Area Business Manager

Kirsty is the Area Business Manager (ABM) for London South. She joined the CPS in July 2001 as a contractor for the Customer Services Department (CSD). Kirsty worked for the CSD for two years.

In 2003 Kirsty joined Business Information Systems (BIS) Directorate as a Business Support Manager and a year later she became a Resource Manager. From 2006 to 2015 Kirsty worked for CPS London in many roles including Area Finance Manager, Project Manager, then District Business Manager, before becoming the Senior Business Manager in 2012.

In 2015 Kirsty was seconded as the Senior Business Manager for CPS South East and a year later became the Area Business Manager. Kirsty joined Proceeds of Crime in September 2019 as the Area Business Manager (ABM) and later became the Area Business Manager for CPS London South in January 2022.

Kirsty is responsible for determining and delivering operational strategy (including financial, people and performance) leading the change programme, implementing operational change, managing business performance, and working with stakeholders to develop the CJS wider performance.

Our Magistrates’ Court Unit prosecutes offences of domestic abuse, assaults, criminal damage, minor public disorder incidents, all but the most serious traffic offences, possession of drugs, dangerous dog offences, offences of dishonesty and commercial burglaries. The list is not exhaustive but generally comprises of any offence where the maximum permitted sentence for each offence does not exceed six months' imprisonment or one year if two or more relevant offences are to be considered.

The Crown Court Unit deals with cases such as attempted murder, robberies, serious assaults, dwelling house burglaries, complex fraud and the supply and trafficking of drugs.

The unit deals with the most complex criminal cases in North and South London. Made up of highly experienced and skilled lawyers and paralegal officers, the team has in the last year gained the first successful prosecution for female genital mutilation and also the first two unregistered school prosecutions. The unit works closely with the police in London (Metropolitan and City of London) to tackle serious and organised crime, including trafficking, large scale drugs importation and distribution, and money laundering.

The RASSO Unit is a dedicated and specialised team which prosecutes cases such as rape, serious sexual offences, child abuse, child sexual exploitation and so-called 'honour based' violence. The staff on the unit all have a great deal of understanding of the sensitivities of prosecuting cases of this nature and how difficult and harrowing it can be for a victim from the first step of making a complaint to the police, through to giving evidence in a trial.