Grace Loncraine
Throughout her legal career, Grace has practiced exclusively in criminal defence, conducting trial advocacy in the Magistrates’ and Youth Court, litigation at the Crown Court and protecting her clients’ interests during interviews with the police. She has a varied caseload, instructed by those charged with offences ranging from serious fraud to murder, as well as in criminal appeals and in crime-adjacent work (such as challenging the disclosure of criminal records and cash forfeiture proceedings).
Grace has a particular interest in cases involving irregularities in evidence gathering and disclosure. She has extensive knowledge of police powers in the arrest and detention of suspects, and has given training on this topic to other professionals.
Grace is the lead at Commons on a long-term project aimed at improving the experience of young migrants in the criminal justice system. She has expert knowledge of the practical and legal cross-over between crime and immigration. She believes passionately in the importance of practitioners in these areas working together closely to ensure that their client’s interests are understood in the round.
Grace’s notable recent cases include:
R v A-O (2022) – Crown dropped prosecution of client charged with attending Sarah Everard protest at Clapham Common.
R v A (2022) – Court of Appeal refused Crown’s application to increase mentally-ill client’s minimum tariff for murder after defence successfully argued that the sentence was not unduly lenient.
R v W (2022) – Client who stabbed partner in stomach sentenced to community order after Crown eventually accepted a lesser plea half-way through trial.
R v S (2022) – Police force withdrew from proceedings involving the appeal of a Community Protection Notice they had issued (and paid client’s legal costs in full) after Grace put forward written arguments that notice breached client’s human rights.
R v M (2022) – Acquittal for GBH and aggravated burglary following challenge to identification evidence
R v M (2020) – Guilty plea to half-a-million-pound fraud against former employers. On the back of psychological and psychiatric reports prepared on behalf of the defence, Client received a sentence which was half the length argued for by the Prosecution.
R v C (2019) – Secured not-guilty verdict for a youth following a successful argument that his comments in interview should be excluded because they were made in response to misleading information
R v M (2020) – Secured not-guilty verdict after successfully rebutting the Crown’s argument that youth client could be found guilty on a joint enterprise basis.
R v N (2020) – Crown agreed to drop charge of possessing a loaded firearm as part of plea deal.
Grace graduated from the University of St Andrews with first class honours in English Literature and Spanish, achieving the highest results in Spanish across the year group. Outside of her day-to-day practice, Grace has delivered online CPD-certified lectures on updates in the criminal law and campaigns on issues affecting access to justice. She is a committee member of London Criminal Courts Solicitor’s Association, as part of which she contributes to law reform consultations.
