Brian Altman

Brian Altman (born 16 August 1957) QC is an English lawyer who has been Lead Counsel for the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse since 10 January 2017.[1] Altman was First Senior Treasury Counsel at the Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey) from 2010-13. Altman is the joint Head of Chambers of 2 Bedford Row, barristers’ chambers.

Brian Altman
Born (1957-08-16) August 16, 1957
London
Alma materKing's College London
OccupationBarrister
Website2 Bedford Row Brian Altman QC.com

Career

Altman was called to the Bar by Middle Temple in 1981. In 1997 he was appointed junior Treasury Counsel - Standing Counsel to the Crown at the Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey). In 2002 he was appointed senior Treasury Counsel. Between 2010-13 he was First Senior Treasury Counsel.[2] In October 2019, Altman was appointed joint Head of Chambers of 2 Bedford Row, barristers’ chambers, from where he practises.

Altman became Queen’s Counsel in 2008. He was made a Master of the Bench of Middle Temple in 2010 and has been a Recorder of the Crown Court since 2003.

On 10 January 2017 he was appointed Lead Counsel to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. He led in the Inquiry’s 2017 hearings into historical allegations of child sexual abuse including those against Liberal MP Cyril Smith in Rochdale and in the Inquiry's March 2019 hearings examining whether there was a culture of deference and tolerance by the political parties and the police towards persons of public prominence in Westminster, as well as in the Inquiry’s October/November 2019 hearings examining the institutional failures of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales in child protection and safeguarding.[3]

In addition to his inquiry work, Altman’s main specialisms are fraud and bribery, as well as corporate governance, compliance and regulatory work. His practice also includes serious crime such as homicide, terrorism, police misconduct, money laundering and large scale drugs cases.[4]

Altman has also advised the Competition & Markets Authority on alleged cartel offences, the Serious Fraud Office and the Financial Conduct Authority.

In 2017 Altman secured the acquittal of GD, a former senior police chief in Avon & Somerset, who was accused of sexually assaulting women on cross country trains in the West Country. In 2015 Altman represented one of four serving police officers accused of misconduct in public office arising from a high-profile murder case in Bristol in July 2013. The officer was unanimously acquitted after a seven-week trial.

Altman has prosecuted some of the highest profile cases of recent times. In 2007/08, Altman successfully led for the prosecution in the case of notorious serial killer Levi Bellfield for the murders of Amélie Delagrange and Marsha McDonnell and the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy, and in 2011 he successfully led for the prosecution in the Milly Dowler murder case. The cases have been featured in several books and television documentaries, in particular Colin Sutton’s book ‘Manhunt’ which was serialised on television in 2019.

In 2012 Altman led in the successful prosecution of Eric Bikubi and Magalie Bamu who were charged with the 2010 murder of Magalie’s younger brother, Kristy Bamu,[5] who was tortured over several days during a process of Congolese witchcraft and exorcism, as featured in Richard Hoskins' book ‘The Boy in the River’.

In 2018 Altman led for the prosecution in the 1986 Brighton Babes in the Wood murders.[6] Having been acquitted in 1987 at Lewes Crown Court, and following a successful application to the Court of Appeal under the double jeopardy rule to quash the acquittals and to retry him, Russell Bishop was retried at the Old Bailey and convicted of the murders of two nine-year-old girls, Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows. The case is the oldest to be tried under the double jeopardy rule. The case was featured in the 2019 BBC2 television programme ‘The Babes in the Woods Murders: The Prosecutors’.

In March 2020, Altman led for the prosecution in the first trial concerning the death of PC Andrew Harper who was dragged to his death by a car driven by three young men escaping from their theft of a quad bike.[7][8][9] That trial had to be aborted due to Covid-19. Altman did not prosecute the retrial in June 2020 due to other professional commitments, when the three were convicted of PC Harper’s manslaughter.

Altman has regularly prosecuted serious terrorism offences, including Khalid Ali,[10] who spent five years as a Taliban bomb-maker in Afghanistan and was arrested while plotting a high visibility terror attack in Whitehall in 2017; a major Islamic State-influenced terror plot to kill servicemen or policemen in the UK; an ISIS cyber-terrorist; the 2011 Birmingham terror bomb plotters;[11] former Guantanamo detainee Moazzam Begg; ‘on the run’ IRA man John Downey; trained jihadi fighters returning from Syria; and Neil Lewington, a white supremacist operating a bomb factory.[12]

Personal life

Altman was born 16 August 1957, one of twins, and educated at Chingford Senior High School.[13] He graduated from King's College London with a LLB in 1978 and also studied at the University of Amsterdam. He is married with four children, and lives in West London.

References
  1. "Inquiry announces new lead Counsel", IICSA, 10 January 2017
  2. "About Brian Altman QC - Barrister". Retrieved 10 January 2017
  3. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/nov/06/i-failed-archbishop-agrees-he-shut-out-victim-hears-inquiry
  4. "Brian Altman QC", Chambers and Partners. Retrieved 10 January 2017
  5. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-boy-in-the-river-by-richard-hoskins-p2xm8swtqlz
  6. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-46528206
  7. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-51801840
  8. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/newly-wed-pc-andrew-harper-was-dragged-to-his-death-behind-car-doing-over-40mph-5x2xkzfn0
  9. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/mar/10/killing-of-pc-andrew-harper-completely-senseless-court-told
  10. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jul/20/westminster-knife-attacker-khalid-ali-jailed-for-40-years
  11. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21151571
  12. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/6155880/Neo-Nazi-jailed-indefinitely-over-racist-bomb-plot.html
  13. Brian Altman QC, The Legal 500. Retrieved 10 January 2017
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