Under the Wig: A Lawyer’s Stories of Murder, Guilt and Innocence

How can you speak up for someone accused of a savage murder? Or sway a jury? Or get a judge to drop a case?

William Clegg QC is a leading criminal lawyer in London. In this vivid memoir, he revisits his most notorious and intriguing trials, from the acquittal of Colin Stagg to the murder of Jill Dando, to the man given life because of an earprint and the first Nazi war crimes prosecution in the UK.

All the while he lays bare the secrets of his profession, from the rivalry among barristers to the nervous moments before a verdict comes back — and how our right to a fair trial is now at risk.

Under the Wig is for anyone who wants to know the reality of a murder trial. Switch off the TV dramas and plunge into the criminal law in action.

Well-known cases featured:

• The Murder of Rachel Nickell on Wimbledon Common

• The Chillenden Murders (Dr Lin and Megan Russell)

• The Trial of Private Lee Clegg

• The Murder of Jill Dando

• The first Nazi war crimes prosecution in the UK

• The Murder of Joanna Yeates

• The Rebekah Brooks Phone Hacking Trial

Table of Contents

Introduction: How can you defend a man like that?

Case 1: The Wimbledon Common Murder

Perry Mason and the Art of Advocacy

Case 2: The Murder of Samantha Bisset

Ronnie Trott, pupil master

Case 3: The Chillenden Murders

Learning how to fight a case

Case 4: Helen Hodgson

Mutiny at 3 Hare Court

Case 5: Waking the Dead in Belarus

How to Become a QC

Case 6: Andrusha the Bastard

Defending Fraudsters

Case 7: Convicted by Earprint

Winning the Trust of a Judge

Case 8: Private Clegg and the Joyriders

How to Appeal to a Jury

Case 9: A Murder Without a Body?

21st Century Set

Case 10: War Crimes in the Balkans

Inside Chambers: Rivalry and Camaraderie

Case 11: The Murder of Jill Dando

Bribery and Corruption

Case 12: A Ghetto Shoot-out in Jamaica

Trying Times for Legal Aid

Case 13: The Murder of Joanna Yeates

Private Clients

Case 14: The Phone Hacking Trial

Afterword: A Life of Crime

Acknowledgements

Index