Marguerite Russell is a founding member of Garden Court Chambers. Marguerite represented the miners in the Orgreave Miners Trial, a landmark case against the State in 1985.
Click here to watch the documentary series on Channel 4.
Forty years later, through the eyes of those directly involved, the Channel 4 series 'Miners' Strike 1984: The Battle for Britain' explores the miners' strike and the brave individuals that took on the might of the State in the Orgreave Miners Trial, a landmark trial that was the longest public order trial of its time, lasting 48 days.
As a result of defence cross-examinations of police witnesses, based in part on defence photographic materials, the Crown discontinued the trial and dropped the charges against the miners during the prosecution case.
Marguerite Russell features in Episode 2 of the Channel 4 documentary series stating: "One of the most shocking things in [the] Orgreave [trial] for me, was the mass corruption in the taking of the [police] witness statements."
Gareth Peirce, instructing solicitor in the case, added: "It was the police who were the aggressors in an extraordinary way. The police treated it as a war."
More information can be found in this article, 'How they rewrote the law at Orgreave', by Gareth Peirce published in The Guardian, which criticises the actions of the police at Orgreave.
Click here to watch the three-part documentary series on Channel 4. The series has been covered widely in the press including The Guardian, ITV and The Telegraph.
Founded in 1974, Garden Court Chambers has a proud history of winning ground-breaking cases of constitutional importance. Our legal challenges have brought justice in many historic cases against the State. Find out more about our ethos and commitment to justice here.
