Mark Cotter Q.C., leading Jeffrey Jones of 30 Park Place, Cardiff, has secured the acquittal of David Osborne, following a five-week murder trial heard before Lewis J at Newport Crown Court. Mr. Osborne was the lead defendant in the trial and was accused, together with Ieuan Harley, of the murder of David Gaut.
Mr. Gaut had previously served a life sentence for the murder of a young child in the 1980s. Mr. Gaut was brutally murdered in David Osborne’s flat, suffering over 150 stab wounds. Mr. Osborne had accepted participating in the disposal of the body and concealing other evidence, however, he asserted that Ieuan Harley was solely responsible for the murder. The jury convicted Mr. Harley of murder, but acquitted Mr. Osborne of both murder and manslaughter.
This is the latest in a string of successes in murder trials for Mark. He secured the only outright acquittal in a multi-handed knife murder heard and the Old Bailey over September and October 2018 and went straight on to secure across the board murder convictions in a multi-handed murder at Cardiff Crown Court, where Mark was instructed to prosecute by South Wales CPS.
Mark Cotter Q.C. specialises in homicide, white-collar fraud, sexual offending and general crime (practicing through 5 St Andrew’s Hill in London and 30 Park Place in Cardiff).
