Kieran Vaughan KC

Practice Areas

Widely recognised as one of the UK’s top criminal trial and appeal barristers whose experience in dealing with the most serious, complex and high-profile cases is almost unparalleled. Over the years he has defended in the Magistrates Court, Crown Court and Court of Appeal in many of the highest profile fraud, murder, terrorist, sexual offences and organised crime cases to come before the courts. To name but a few:

Sean Hoey (Omagh Bombing – charged with 29 murders);

Thomas “The Bomber” Kavanagh (said to be the “Kinihan’s UK lieutenant”);

JB (co-defendant of Terry Adams in large scale multi-million pounds money laundering case);

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson (Ex leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, charged with several sexual offenses);

Ched Evans (International and Premiership footballer – led the defence in the Court of Appeal which resulted in his convictions being quashed);

Reece Nelson (Arsenal footballer);

CS (former CFO of UBS Bank);

HBoS fraud;

Usman Khan (London Bridge attacker).

Over the 32 years of practice, Kieran has developed a very keen interest in cases involving scientific evidence and in particular DNA. It was against that background that he was invited to write the forward to a leading scientific text book on DNA – “A Guide To Forensic DNA Profiling” and to contribute to the very recent Panorama broadcast concerning the Lucy Letby case.

In 2024 was described in one of the leading UK legal directories as: “possibly the best KC of our generation”

Publications

Has co-authored the Sweet & Maxwell textbook on Confiscation.