Recognised as advocate with real skill and flair, Richard is committed to his clients and represents them how he would wish to be treated. He is frequently praised by opponents for his impressive courtroom advocacy, and for his approachable manner with clients and witnesses. He enjoys the respect of the judiciary and those who instruct him, alike.
As a leading junior, Richard has appeared in serious and complex trials of murder, rape, child abuse, organised crime, and fraud. He is a Grade 4 prosecutor for the CPS, having been appointed in 2011.
Recent cases saw Richard secure the acquittal of a school caretaker tried for rape in Oxford and saw him secure the conviction of a minor celebrity charged with rape, voyeurism, and other sexual offences in a well-publicised trial in Wood Green Crown Court.
Previously, Richard appeared in cases as diverse as breaching the licensing rules on the export of weapons’ grade graphite, carrying a loaded firearm on a transatlantic aeroplane, and acted as leading prosecuting counsel in the trial of a cold case rape committed 25 years earlier by an infamous serial rapist, all at the Central Criminal Court.
Richard has represented families, medical professionals and others in numerous inquests before a coroner alone and before a jury, including a three-week death in custody case in Manchester. Richard has also lectured on the subject to solicitors.
Richard has advised prisoners seeking to appeal convictions or sentences. He has succeeded in overturning the conviction of a man accused of raping and beating his wife and has appeared in criminal and civil courts in the Caribbean.
He has had published articles in the legal press: Disclosure in Criminal Cases: it’s not Rocket Science (March 2018) and Live Links in the Crown Court (January 2017) and appeared in six cases cited in the 2025 edition of Archbold. Richard attended the CBA RASSO refresher course in 2024.
Richard teaches advocacy regularly to new practitioners of Gray’s Inn.
R v Damji (Farah) [2021] WLR 3635, [2021] 1 Cr. App. R. 18, [2021] 2 Cr. App. R. (S.) 17, The Court of Appeal ruled that there was no need to read into section 5 (5) of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 any words importing a requirement of additional mens rea.
R v Mahboob [2014] 2 Cr. App. R. (S) 67 The Court of Appeal gave guidance on how a judge should spell out when to withhold a discount for a prompt plea of guilty.
R v M (A) [2013] 1 W.L.R. 958, [2013] 1 Cr. App. R. 5, [2013] Crim LR 327 Lord Judge CJ gave the judgment of the Court of Appeal about the stage of a trial when an objection to a jury irregularity must be made.
R v D (P) [2012] 1 Cr. App. R. 33 The Court of Appeal ruled that the failure of the trial judge to give a good character direction in circumstances where he had ruled he would do so, despite the accused having admitted criminal behaviour, made the conviction for rape unsafe. The dicta of the Court were queried by a full court presided over by the Lord Chief Justice, sitting with the President and Vice President of the Queen’s Bench Division in the later case of R v Hunter & Others [2015] 2 Cr. App. R. 9.
R v A (Ashraf) (2011) 175 J.P. 437 A Court of Appeal case where the necessity to give to a jury certain legal directions regarding hearsay evidence arising from an allegation of rape was decided and subsequently, coincidentally, referred to by Court of Appeal, with approval, in R v Hunter & Others [2015] 2 Cr. App. R. 9.
R v Golding [2007] 1 Cr. App. R. (S) 79, [2006] M.H.L.R. 272, [2007] Crim. L.R. 170 The Court of Appeal had to decide on the criteria needed to be proved before a judge can sentence an offender to a Restriction Order under the Mental Health Act 1983.
R (on the application of H) v Balham Youth Court (2004) 168 J.P. 177 A judicial review concerned with the circumstances in which a youth court is entitled to commit a juvenile to the Crown Court for trial.
R v Matthews [2004] Q.B. 690, [2003] 3 W.L.R. 693, [2003] 2 Cr. App. R. 19, The Times 28.4.03 The Court of Appeal ruled on whether aspects of the law against carrying a knife or other sharp implement in public breached the European Convention on Human Rights.
T v DPP [2003] Crim L.R. 622 Where the High Court (Administrative Court) defined the term “actual bodily harm” as including momentary loss of consciousness.
Richard Hearnden secures the conviction of a man who carved his name into a girl’s leg
https://furnivalchambers.co.uk/secures-the-conviction-of-a-woman-richard-hearndenwho-sexually-abused-two-children-in-the-1980s-and-1990s/
https://furnivalchambers.co.uk/richard-hearnden-secures-the-conviction-of-a-masked-rapist-who-thought-hed-committed-the-perfect-crime/
https://furnivalchambers.co.uk/conviction-for-serious-sexual-offences/
https://furnivalchambers.co.uk/richard-hearnden-secured-the-conviction-of-two-men-and-one-woman-who-conspired-to-commit-grievous-bodily-harm-on-a-man-in-west-sussex/
https://furnivalchambers.co.uk/richard-hearnden-secures-the-conviction-of-a-59-year-old-man-charged-with-the-rape-and-sexual-assault-of-his-stepdaughter/
https://furnivalchambers.co.uk/richard-hearnden-secures-the-conviction-of-former-kent-police-officer-charged-with-sexually-abusing-and-raping-a-14-year-old-girl-in-the-late-1990s/
https://furnivalchambers.co.uk/richard-hearnden-secures-the-conviction-of-former-kent-police-officer-charged-with-sexually-abusing-and-raping-a-14-year-old-girl-in-the-late-1990s/
https://furnivalchambers.co.uk/richard-hearnden-secured-the-conviction-of-two-men-and-one-woman-who-conspired-to-commit-grievous-bodily-harm-on-a-man-in-west-sussex/
https://furnivalchambers.co.uk/nhs-mental-health-nurse-sentenced-to-twelve-and-a-half-years-imprisonment-at-lewes-crown-court/