Bethany Currie

Protest Rights

Beth is regularly instructed to represent defendants accused of offences committed in protest contexts, including high-value criminal damage, burglary, public nuisance, and other public order offences. Beth has secured acquittals by jury for clients after appealing to ‘reasonable excuse’ defences and arguing that a conviction would amount to a disproportionate interference with a defendant’s human rights.

Housing & Homelessness

Beth has a busy housing practice and is frequently instructed to defend vulnerable tenants and mortgagors in possession proceedings. She is able to advise and represent clients on the full range of landlord and tenant matters, including anti-social behaviour, disrepair, and discrimination. She has experience defending claims on the basis of public law, human rights, and discrimination under the Equality Act 2010.

Inquests & public inquiries

Beth has a busy nationwide inquest practice representing bereaved families in inquests arising from deaths in varied and complex circumstances, including deaths in custody, mental health detention, and community settings. She acts for clients in Article 2 and non-Article 2 cases.

Recent cases include:

• Re JT: Representing the brother of JT, who was murdered by another prisoner while in custody at HMP Nottingham. The Coroner recorded a conclusion of unlawful killing, and that a lack of supervision on the wing was possibly causative of JT’s death. The Coroner further recorded a number of non-causative failings, including missed opportunities to share pertinent risk information between community healthcare and prison healthcare, internally within prison healthcare, and between prison healthcare and operational prison staff.  A Prevention of Future Deaths Report was issued on account of these information sharing concerns, as well as the categorisation and visibility of alerts on NOMIS/DPS. The Prevention of Future Deaths report can be found here and additional press coverage here.
• Re BW: Representing the family of BW, who died following a fall from a hoist at a care home. A full body sling should have been used to transfer BW, but was not used on this occasion. The Coroner found that if a full body sling had been used then BW’s death would more likely than not have been averted and recorded a conclusion of accidental death.
• Re RC: Representing the family of RC, who died by suicide following a deterioration in his mental health and contact with a number of agencies. The Coroner found that RC had been unable to source assistance and access to medication in the weeks before his death and recorded a conclusion of suicide.

Beth is a member of the INQUEST Lawyers Group.

Prison law

Beth has a particular interest in prison and sentencing law and is keen to further build her practice in this area. She has been instructed on a number of complex Tier 4 parole hearings, acting for prisoners who have been sentenced to IPP, DPP, life and extended sentences.

Privacy Notice

Beth’s privacy notice can be viewed here.