Tom Hughes was one of Gail McIntyre’s legal team assigned to her defence when she found herself charged with the murder of her husband Joe. On their first meeting at Redford Prison prior to the trial, he listened as his junior barrister Ms Waller warned Gail in stark terms of the way in which the prosecution team would paint the picture of the McIntyres' marriage and he gently intervened when Gail looked as if she was about to say something that would incriminate herself.
At the trial heard at Weatherfield Crown Court, he pointed out that Tracy Barlow was an unreliable defence witness, not having been believed by the jury at her own murder trial. He got the Home Office Pathologist to admit that the blow to Joe's head could have come from the swinging boom on his boat, not a blow from a rolling pin as the prosecution alleged, and that this may have caused a weakened state in which Joe would have been unable to drag himself out of the water in Lake Windermere where he met his death and he also alleged that Tina McIntyre's dislike of Gail came from her jealousy that Gail had supplanted Tina in Joe's affections.
After the prosecution had rested, he outlined the defence case and called Gail as his first witness allowing her to tell her version of the story to the court. After bribed Polish cleaner Anka Grabowski fled the court building, he called David Platt as his second witness. In his summing up he pointed out that although the fact that Joe died couldn't be denied, there was no actual evidence that he was murdered. The jury seemed to agree and found Gail "not guilty".
After Gail had been discharged, he advised her to "listen to the birds, breathe fresh air and take a holiday."
- Credited as "Mr Hughes", his first name was given in dialogue in his last appearance.
List of appearances[]
2010