Valeria Swift is a specialist criminal law barrister who is known for her persuasive advocacy, excellent client care and painstaking case preparation. She defends and prosecutes and has a strong track record for delivering results. She conducts most of her cases as sole counsel but is frequently instructed as junior counsel in appropriate cases. Valeria is multi-lingual, fluent in Spanish, French and Italian.
In recent years Valeria Swift’s practice has focused particularly on allegations of homicide, organised crime and serious sexual offences and she has built up a strong reputation for achieving successful outcomes in such cases.
She is regularly instructed in matters relating to:
Organised crime (particular expertise in covert and intelligence led operations, disclosure issues, and informant handling)
Cases of Homicide
Serious sexual offences (eg. rape, sexual assault, offences against children and the vulnerable, indecent images)
Drugs (eg. major conspiracies, importations, possession with intent, cannabis factories)
Serious violence and firearms offences
Financial crime (fraud and money laundering)
Complex and High Value Confiscation
Regulatory work including prosecutions brought by local authorities in respect of housing and benefit fraud, health and safety, trading strandards and enviromental act proceedings.
Sarah Forshaw KC leading Valeria Swift and instructed by Nick Vamos of Peters & Peters, represented this young man from a wealthy and prominent overseas family, who was found not guilty of all charges against him following a two-week trial at Southwark Crown Court in February 2023.
Accusations made by his former girlfriend had resulted in a six-count indictment, including allegations of sexual assault, false imprisonment and rape. He was released under investigation shortly after his arrest, and was granted bail to return to and remain in his home country until the trial. Peters & Peters obtained permission for him to attend all pre-trial hearings remotely. The allegations date back to 2018. Trial was originally scheduled for early 2022, but was adjourned owing to prosecution disclosure failures. The failures continued up to and during trial, with a number of disclosure hearings taking place, and significant items of disclosure provided only on the day the case was opened to the jury.
Following the two-week trial, during which the client gave evidence, the jury returned unanimous not guilty verdicts on all charges after less than three hours’ deliberation.
Valeria Swift secured her client’s acquittal of multiple counts of rape, false imprisonment and choking at the conclusion of a three week trial. Instructed by Hodge, Jones & Allen.
Valeria Swift was instructed by EBR Attridge to represent the first defendant in an eight-handed attempted murder trial at Woolwich Crown Court. Her client was acquitted of attempted murder at the conclusion of the trial.
Natasha Wong QC and Valeria Swift successfully defended man accused of murdering his friend in a fight following a night of drink and drug taking. The deceased suffered from significant heart disease and traumatic brain injury. Case involved exploration of issue of causation with evidence from numerous leading medical experts, including neuro-pathologists, cardiologists, histo-pathologists, toxicologists and forensic pathologists. Instructed by Ben Thomas of Sternberg Reed.
Natasha Wong QC and Valeria Swift secured the acquittal of their client, an autistic teenager with severe learning disabilities, at the end of a 12 week murder trial involving six defendants at the Old Bailey. A woman became the innocent victim of a drugs feud when she died in an arson attack just hours before she was due to return home to Sierra Leone. The 46 year old Teacher, was staying with relatives in Woolwich, South East London, when the blaze broke out. Client found not guilty of joint enterprise murder, manslaughter and causing grievous bodily harm with intent to multiple victims. Instructed by Jatinder Sokhal of TBW Solicitors.
