A revered lawyer who represented a client in one of the island’s high-profile cases was a vocal campaigner for legal aid.

Courtenay Griffiths KC spoke publicly about legal aid cuts on clients of colour and the “high-street lawyers in whom there was so much trust”, the Garden Court Chambers in London where he worked said.

Mr Griffiths was Called to the Bar in 1980, took Silk in 1998 and was joint head of the law firm from 1999 to 2012, where he worked for some 30 years.

The firm said the Jamaican-born lawyer believed in the importance of “fiercely” representing defendants, “even those who were among the most unpopular in our society”.

In 2011, he said: “Every person who faces prosecution is entitled to the very best defence available. Without that, we would not have the high standards of justice that we do.

“This was one of the founding principles of Garden Court Chambers and it remains at the heart of what I and my colleagues do every day of our lives.”

In 2006, Mr Griffiths gained prominence when he represented Kenneth Burgess who was later found guilty of murdering twins Jahmal and Jahmil Cooper in a horrific baseball bat attack the year before in Devonshire.

In a crime that rocked the island, the court heard that Mr Burgess and an accomplice launched the fatal beating in a revenge attack because he thought the twins had robbed his father.

Accomplice Dennis Robinson, who helped dump the brothers’ bodies 80 feet down from Abbot’s Cliff, was also convicted for the gruesome murders.

Mr Griffiths fielded many questions in his arguments during the months-long trial.

He told the jury the Crown’s case contained gaps and inconsistencies as he made the case for his client to be acquitted.

Elsewhere on the international circuit, Mr Griffiths acted in one of the world’s most infamous cases in which he represented former Liberia president Charles Taylor in his war crimes trial in The Hague in 2012.

Mr Taylor was found guilty and Mr Griffiths later told the BBC that the trial had not been fair, but rather “prompted by political imperatives”.

The Garden Court Chamber said Mr Griffiths had been a “true legend, titan and icon”.

It said he was revered for his formidable advocacy and devastating cross-examination and paved the way for other Black lawyers.

It said: “It is difficult to overstate the inspiration it gave aspiring and young Black lawyers to see Courtenay achieve so much.

“And to go toe-to-toe with establishment racism and injustice almost every day, particularly at a time when Black barristers were an even smaller minority.”

It added: “Whether as a pupil supervisor, mentor, colleague or friend, Courtenay was generous with his support.

“He understood the political and personal importance, particularly for Black advocates, of being yourself when in court, which he authoritatively insisted on doing himself.”

Courtenay Griffiths KC, lawyer, was born on October 10, 1955. He died on June 23, 2025, aged 69