Orla Daly

A practice dominated by media-sensitive and complex crime, Orla Daly is strategically astute and wonderful both with clients and in the courtroom.

Overview 

Orla Daly specialises in complex and high-profile cases, prosecuting and defending a wide spectrum of offences including homicide, organised crime, financial crime, and all categories of assault and sexual assault, including rape.  She has particular expertise across the full gamut of sexual offences, present and historical, and their various respective defences.  She is frequently instructed in multi-handed cases and is adept at dealing with complex, often expert and medical evidence.  She regularly represents professionals and high-profile individuals for a vast array of offences, fully aware of the importance of preserving reputation.  Orla is often involved in unusual, challenging cases and those that have set precedent.  She has experience at all levels of tribunal from the magistrates through to the appeal courts.

Experience 

Orla Daly undertakes a wide range of criminal work, both prosecuting and defending.  She specialises in complex and high-profile cases, and has appeared in numerous multi-handed trials.  Her practice covers a wide spectrum of offences, with particular expertise in sexual offences.

Her experience of dealing with the gravest of sexual offences has meant that she is well versed in historic allegations, complex scientific evidence, applications to stay proceedings, issues of capacity and ancillary matters such as Sexual Harm Prevention Orders.  She has experience of representing parties in high profile investigations involving multiple complainants such as Operation Yewtree and the Harvey Weinstein scandal.

Orla has vast experience of offences against the person including numerous cases of GBH s.18 involving defendants accused of intentionally infecting sexual partners with HIV.

She is frequently instructed in murder and attempted murder trials and often those involving issues pertaining to mental health and the law of insanity.  She regularly deals with vulnerable witnesses and defendants.

Orla’s experience of trials arising from organised crime have extended to issues that have engaged the provisions of the Modern Slavery Act.  She is well versed at multiple indictment and defendant cases, both from a prosecution and defence perspective. She is adept at dealing with large volumes of complex material, including cell-site evidence.

Orla frequently represents professionals and is aware of the sensitivities and complexities that this entails.  She has experience of cases involving sports professionals, clergymen, derivatives traders, film directors, authors, publicists, teachers, servicemen. 

Orla has experience of dealing with cases from their inception pre-charge through numerous tribunals, both in terms of hierarchy and category.  She appears at the magistrates, crown court and appellate courts as well as at court martial.

Notable Cases 

R v Mendy (2023)
A Manchester City and France international footballer faced a ten count indictment in relation to allegations made by seven women. He was acquitted of all matters, eight allegations of rape, one attempted rape and one sexual assault. Following a five month trial in 2022-23 and unanimously acquitted following a further two week trial on two remaining counts in 2023. 

R v V (2023)
Defence of banker acquitted of raping a woman he met through Tinder.

R v P (2023)
Acted for the defendant in a trial of issue where the defendant suffered from dementia. The defendant received an absolute discharge in relation to serious sexual offences dating back to the early 1990s.

R v D (2023)
Prosecution of D for murdering his partner in an attack causing more than 50 injuries. Led by Paul Raudnitz KC.

R v B (2023)
Defence of man acquitted of rape and other serious sexual offences. This trial involved allegations made by four people and the alleged offending spanned five decades. 

R v S (2022)
Defence of S, a mother accused of assaulting her child in front of eye witnesses. This case involved a successful application to stay proceedings as an abuse of process. Costs were awarded against the CPS following S’s acquittal.

R v Z (2022)
Defence of Z, who had pleaded guilty to making a large quantity of indecent images of children at category A. Z avoided having a sexual harm prevention order imposed, following successful legal argument.

R v H (2022)
Successful defence of H, accused of raping a woman who was too intoxicated to be capable of consent. Case involved pre-recorded cross-examination of the main witness under s.28 as well as expert toxicology evidence.

R v K (2021)
K, who suffered from severe learning difficulties, was acquitted of raping and sexually assaulting two women. Both complainants were cross-examined under the provisions of s.28 YJCEA 1999. K and the prosecution witnesses all required intermediaries.

R v A (2021)
Acted for A, a solicitor accused of offences of assault and obstruction of police. A had pleaded not guilty and the case was listed for trial. The prosecution was persuaded to offer no evidence following represe.

R v B & others (2021)
Acted for the prosecution in a case of a gang related murder. B was part of a group which rammed the deceased’s car before fatally stabbing him. A terminatory ruling made at the close of the Crown’s case was successfully appealed. Led by Edward Brown KC.

R v H (2020)
Acted for H, the second defendant in a “county lines” case of dealing class A drugs. The trial involved expert cell site analysis and DNA evidence. H was the only defendant to be acquitted.

R v C (2020)
Successful defence of C in the youth court before a district judge. C, aged 13, was accused of sexual assault and assault occasioning actual bodily harm in relation to a school friend. Trial involved expert evidence in relation to causation of injuries.

R v A (2020)
Defence of A, a professor and author, in relation to numerous allegations arising from his relationships with a number of women. Prosecution offered no evidence following representations.

R v O (2019)
Successful defence of O, accused with three others of rape and sexual assault of three teenagers who were strangers to him. 

R v T (2019)
Defence of mother accused of murdering her baby. T was acquitted of murder and sentenced to two years and nine months imprisonment for allowing the death of a child.

Operation Silk (2017-18)
Defence of the third of eleven defendants in one of the largest and longest running “grooming” cases ever prosecuted. This historic case, with allegations dating back to the late 1990s, lasted for six months.

R v Pentreath (2017)
Prosecution of a professional chess player for serious sexual offences committed against three children in the 1980s. He was eventually sentenced to 35 years’ imprisonment.

R v V (2017)
Successful defence of a clergyman, accused of historic sexual offences against three women. The defence pursuit of disclosure in this case led to the prosecution offering no evidence against V.

Operation Yewtree (2016)
Successful defence of the celebrity publicist Max Clifford for historic indecent assault. Led by Sarah Forshaw Q.C.

Operation Linear (2016)
Represented C, the second of 23 defendants originally facing an 82 count indictment. C was charged with rape, human trafficking and making indecent images. He was due to be tried in the second “wave” of trials, along with eight others. A successful abuse of process application by the defence was appealed by the Crown. This is now a leading case on indecent images, re-defining the circumstances in which a defendant is required to have knowledge of the age of a child depicted in an image. C was eventually given a suspended sentence for a single indecent image offence. R v W (2016) EWCA Crim 745

R v Sykes (2016)
Defence of a man with learning difficulties accused of murdering an elderly acquaintance in a hammer attack. Led by Sarah Forshaw Q.C.

R v H (2016) 
Successful defence of an 82 year old retired head teacher for an allegation of historic sexual abuse of a pupil. H was unfit to participate in his trial and could not provide instructions to his solicitors. He was found not to have “committed the act”, despite the fact that the complainant’s account could not be specifically challenged in cross-examination.

R v M (2015) 
Defence of sports coach accused of 30 counts of historic rape against five male complainants.

Royal Navy v Roberts (2015)
Court martial. Sailor accused of sexually assaulting a colleague on board a warship in Bahrain. He was acquitted following a successful submission of no case to answer.

R v M (2015) 
Defence of sports coach accused of 30 counts of historic rape against five male complainants.

R v S (2014) 
Defence of S who was acquitted of three allegations of causing grievous bodily harm. It was alleged that he had infected three male partners with HIV. The case involved highly complex phylogenetic evidence, concerning the mechanism of HIV transmission. The allegations were originally tried together but, following cross-examination of the first complainant, the Crown conceded that they could not exclude the possibility of other sources of infection and offered no evidence against S on that count. There were two subsequent trials for the remaining two allegations. Both collapsed in the same way following cross-examination of the complainants.

R v B (2012) 
Successful defence of Commonwealth games and Olympics coach for the alleged sexual assault of a child.

R v J (2007) 
Defence of J who had been accused of causing grievous bodily harm by infecting his partner with HIV. This was one of the earliest prosecutions of its kind and involved complex issues of causation. The prosecution offered no evidence following legal argument at the start of the trial, after failing to establish the requisite scientific link between the strains of HIV affecting J and the complainant.

Reviews

Chambers UK 2024: Crime - Band 2

Legal 500 2024: Crime - Tier 1

Chambers UK 2023: Crime - Band 2

Legal 500 2023: Crime - Tier 1

'A calm, persuasive advocate who is all over the detail in a case.' Chambers UK Crime (2023)

‘Orla is fantastic at reading the courtroom, and being able to carefully craft cross-examination in sensitive situations, whilst still securing the best outcome for the client.’ Legal 500 Crime (2023)

'She is a go-to for anything concerning vulnerable defendants and witnesses.' Chambers UK Crime (2022)

'Orla is fantastic at reading the court room, and adapts to her audience in a fantastic way. She has a fantastic skill of being able to carefully craft cross-examination in sensitive situations, whilst still securing the best outcome for the client.' Legal 500 Crime (2022)