Abigail Husbands

Abigail Husbands is an established senior junior, called to the Bar in 2000, with experience defending and prosecuting a broad range of criminal disciplines, from the most complex murder trials including baby cases, to multi-handed and multi-complainant rape and child sexual abuse cases. Abigail has also prosecuted a number of Metropolitan police officers for sexual offences. She regularly deals with historic offences and cold-case reviews, as well as child cruelty and neglect, serious multi-handed firearms and violence offences as well as drugs, including complex conspiracies. She has experience dealing with vulnerable witnesses, in particular children and people with disabilities. Abigail is regularly instructed by the Appeals Unit, and has experience prosecuting intellectual property crime.

Abigail has recently lectured and trained the police in avoiding myths and stereotypes in the prosecution of rape and serious sexual offences, and on the integrity and diligence required during the disclosure exercise (TVP 2021 & 2022). Abigail has also lectured fellow professionals at the CBA conference on the recent Attorney-General’s Guidelines on Disclosure 2020 (2021).

Abigail collaborated with BBC3 to create and appear in a programme called ‘Is this Rape? – Sex on Trial’, which aired on 2nd November 2015. 12 teenagers viewed a dramatisation of a rape scenario and were asked to decide whether the victim had consented. This was a critically acclaimed programme, nominated for a TV award, which attracted much interest in the media. Abigail was interviewed by Radio 1 and several other media outlets.