Two of 3PB’s specialist crime barristers feature in BBC’s new documentary ‘’Football’s Darkest Secret’’

22nd March 2021

Adam Feest QC, who heads 3PB’s group of criminal law barristers, is appearing tonight with fellow 3PB crime team counsel Berenice Mulvanny in the BBC’s new three-part documentary about child abuse in English football.

The BBC’s new three part documentary ‘’Football's Darkest Secret’’ which airs tonight at 9pm on BBC One, follows a number of high profile cases involving sexual/child abuse in English football.

Specialist crime barristers Adam Feest QC and Berenice Mulvanny will talk about the prosecution of serial-abuser Bob Higgins, the former Southampton FC youth coach who sexually abused 24 boys over more than two decades.

Adam Feest QC and Berenice Mulvanny spent much of 2018 and 2019 prosecuting Bob Higgins. Convictions were secured after an eight week re-trial (after the first jury had been unable to agree verdicts on all but 2 of the 50 counts) which involved the extensive use of pre-recorded evidence, issues relating to hearsay after one of the victims had died before the re-trial and the calling of evidence which had been the subject of an unsuccessful prosecution of the defendant in a 1991 trial.  He was jailed for 24 years and three months.

Judge Peter Crabtree called Higgins a "predatory, cunning" serial sex abuser who "carefully groomed" the teenagers. Higgins' victims told Winchester Crown Court of suicidal thoughts and relationship problems later in life.

The successful conclusion of this case led to Adam and Berenice (pictured here) being awarded a Chief Constable’s Award in August 2020 for their “professionalism, dedication, empathy and attention to detail”.

To instruct Berenice Mulvanny on a matter relating to sexual offences or any other criminal matter, please contact her clerk Stuart Pringle on [email protected].