Before moving to the south west in 1988, Paul Rowsell, was a long-time member of a highly regarded set in Leicester which produced two High Court Judges and a number of appointments to the circuit bench. On the Midlands and Oxford Circuit he conducted a varied and far-ranging practice including crime, civil and family law, as well as appearing at inquests and courts martial. He prosecuted to the conviction the first known case using CCTV evidence in a Crown Court trial, against a driver on the M1 in Northamptonshire who caused multiple deaths by dangerous driving.
Since being in Plymouth he has practised almost exclusively in crime and related matters – Appearing in court over the whole range of criminal offences; in later years tending to concentrate, but not invariably on the more serious and heavier cases namely – homicide and lesser offences of violence, sexual offences, child and computer pornography, theft , fraud and dishonesty, proceeds of crime and confiscation, criminal damage and arson, public disorder, drugs and serious motoring offences.
He is not confined in his practice (in appropriate cases) solely to the Western Circuit; and in addition to undertaking every kind of criminal case, is also experienced in inquests (including treasure-trove cases) and courts-martial.
Notable or reported cases
A number of high profile murder and manslaughter cases – The shooting of a taxi driver on Bodmin Moor; The St Austell railway-viaduct case (Part of the team representing the one defendant acquitted of murder); and the tragic drowning of a young boy in a septic tank at a holiday camp.
Sexual cases – Defending one of three young Australian men wrongly accused of raping a girl in a hotel in Newquay; Appearing for the defence in a child rape case in Plymouth and undertaking the cross-examination of the then youngest complainant to give her evidence by means of live-link TV(3 years old at the time of her CAMAT interview, 4 at the trial); Defending a trainee dentist from Nepal wrongly accused of rape by a work colleague in Plymouth.
Representing the financial director of a local airline for the theft of several million pounds from his employers.
Particular experience in representing diabetic drivers in the South West in cases of dangerous driving and causing death by dangerous driving; defending a young man whose cycling on a pavement in Cornwall caused death of a pedestrian.