Who? Errol Robinson, partner and specialist in criminal law and inquest work at McGrath & Co in Birmingham.

Why is he in the news? Acts for Marcus Ellis and Rodrigo Simms, who were last week convicted of murdering teenagers Charlene Ellis and Letisha Shakespeare and attempting to murder Sophia Ellis and Cheryl Shaw. Mr Robinson claims the trial was 'one of the most unfair trials of modern times' after the key witness was granted an unprecedented amount of anonymity, despite being a convicted criminal and having admitted to being a member of a rival gang. The witness gave his testimony behind a curtain, with the public gallery emptied while he entered the courtroom. While the jury, barristers and judge heard his real voice, a distorted voice was fed into the defendant's dock and put on time delay in case he said anything that could reveal his identity. A spokeswoman for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said the Court of Appeal had ruled that anonymous testimony would be acceptable after the CPS made an interlocutory application to it on the issue.


Background: LLB at what is now De Montfort University in Leicester, followed by a legal practice course there and articles at McGrath & Co, qualifying in 1988.


Route to the case: A referral from a community group.


Thoughts on the case: 'We will certainly be appealing and will go to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary. The European Court has never allowed a conviction to stand where it is wholly based on the testimony of an anonymous witness. It is an extremely dangerous precedent. We were not allowed to cross-examine any witness as to whether the anonymous witness was present at all, and we could not tell our client anything about the description of the anonymous witness. We could not ask anything that could lead to the identity of the witness being revealed, which hampered our ability to cross-examine him. This is not the way we expect an advanced legal system to operate.'


Dealing with the media: 'We have had extensive dealings with the media, who have been quite sympathetic about the legal issues involved.' Mr Robinson was interviewed by the BBC and the broadsheet press.