Less well-known than Michael Mansfield, QC, his fellow defender of notorious cases, Edward Fitzgerald, QC, 55, can equally claim authority as the leading counsel for some of the most notorious criminals in Britain. His clients include public hate-figures such as Myra Hindley and one of James Bulger’s killers. He is modest and unassuming — and not a name outside the Bar. Nonetheless his work in criminal, public and international human rights law has brought him successive awards — winner of the Silk of the Year award in 2005 and Times Justice Human Rights Award in 1998. He has appeared in many leading cases involving extradition, appeals over miscarriages of justice and Privy Council death row appeals from the Commonwealth and Caribbean. In successive landmark cases in the House of Lords and European Court of Human Rights he has established rights for life-sentence prisoners and those on death row. Recent extradition clients include Lofti Raissi, Roisin McAliskey and Babar Ahmad. He has also acted for the victims of crime (including Jayne Zito, whose husband was killed by a schizophrenic) and does not deny that for some, life should mean life. He has a profound belief in the possibility of reform, particularly for child offenders. He married into the Longford family — to Rebecca, Lady Antonia Fraser’s daughter, and has three daughters.

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