The Judge presided over the trial in September 2021 at Weatherfield Crown Court of Corey Brent and Kelly Neelan for the murder of Seb Franklin the previous May. The principal witness to the crime was Nina Lucas, who had been attacked in an adjoining incident by friends of Corey's, Eli Higginson and Jay Dowling, but such were extent of her injuries that it was only on the eve of the trial that she remembered the event in full.
At a pre-trial review a few days earlier, the judge ruled that due to the age of the defendants, they would be permitted to sit in the well of the court, have a parent of guardian sat with them and would be addressed by their first names. In an unusual situation, Imran Habeeb, representing Kelly, and Sabeen Habeeb, for Corey's defence, were a former married couple and the situation was further complicated by the fact that although Sabeen approached her task as a standard work objective, Imran was also Kelly's foster father and all along had been passionately convinced of the girl's innocence. He asked for an adjournment on the basis that Corey had been named online in contravention of a previous order and this could prejudice the trial of both defendants. Kwame Boateng for the prosecution pointed out that the post had been taken down quickly, seen by few people, and a delay to the trial could cause distress to the deceased's family and witnesses. As Sabeen agreed with the prosecution, the judge ruled that although the online post was regrettable, there was no reason to call a halt to the proceedings.
The judge also refused Sabeen's application that a previous drugs conviction for Kelly could be produced in evidence as no one had said that drugs played a part in the attack. Imran's application that specialist forensic evidence which showed that blood splatter on Kelly's shoes meant that she could not have been the one administering the kicks but had probably been stood nearby was challenged by Sabeen who produced evidence that the shoes had been incorrectly stored leading to possible contamination. The judge found in her favour, much to Imran's distress as this was his key evidence in proving his client innocent. She also refused him permission to appeal her ruling.
On the first day of the trial, a new statement was produced made by Nina who the day before had gone back to the scene of the crime for the first time, retracing her steps, which had resulted in her having her full memory recall whereas previously she could not state with any certainty what had occurred. As this statement named Corey as the sole attacker, Sabeen challenged it on the basis that its timing was both convenient and suspicious, but the judge allowed it into evidence on the basis that Sabeen would be allowed to cross-examine Nina on the veracity of her words.
The orderly trial mean that the judge rarely had to intervene as the days wore on. When Asha Alahan was asked if it was possible that Corey's jealousy of her previous relationship of Nina meant that the latter was the target of his hatred and Seb had just "got in the way", Sabeen angrily objected that it was pure speculation but the judge allowed Imran's questioning to continue. The next day, she had to order Kelly twice to be quiet after outbursts from her that Corey and Eli were lying in giving their evidence and on the second occasion she ordered that the girl be removed from the court, warning the jury to disregard the outbursts, and later intervening that Imran should ask questions of Eli rather than making speculative statements about why he had given the answers in favour of Corey that he had while in the witness box.
The next day, she found in the prosecution's favour when Mr Boateng's questions about the possibility of Kelly's washing blood off herself was challenged by Imran as speculation. Her final intervention came when Sabeen was summing up and mentioned Eli's evidence; this prompted Abi Franklin to shout down from the witness box that Eli's father Christian, had been "given a bung", referring to the fact that he had recently been employed in a cushy new job by Stefan Brent, Corey's father, probably in return for giving false evidence in his son's favour. The judge, while sympathising with the distress that Abi was suffering, threatened to remove her from the court and again ordered the jury to again disregard what they had heard.
At the conclusion, the judge asked the forewoman for the jury's verdicts which were that Kelly was guilty while Corey was found not guilty. Later in the month, she sentenced Kelly to life imprisonment with a minimum of fifteen years to be served, despite an emotional mitigation plea from Imran about the difficult upbringing that she had suffered.
List of appearances[]
2021