West Midlands
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is the main prosecuting authority in England and Wales. In our daily operations we work in partnership with all agencies in the criminal justice system. We work especially closely with the police, although we are independent of them.
The CPS has 14 Areas across England and Wales - the CPS West Midlands Area consists of the counties of Warwickshire, Shropshire, Hereford, Worcester, Staffordshire and the metropolitan area of West Midlands, which includes the cities of Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Coventry. This CPS Area also handles the prosecution of all cases which arise from British Transport Police investigations in England and Wales.
Siobhan Blake, Chief Crown Prosecutor
Siobhan Blake was appointed Chief Crown Prosecutor (CCP) of CPS West Midlands in March 2021, having previously been the Chief Crown Prosecutor of Mersey-Cheshire since 2016. Before this, she was Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor for Cymru-Wales Area for four years.
Siobhan qualified as a solicitor having studied law at Southampton and joined the CPS in 1994 as a trainee solicitor. After qualification Siobhan worked in private practice for a period before returning to the CPS.
Siobhan is an experienced prosecutor who has advised upon and prosecuted many high-profile cases, becoming a specialist in the prosecution of rape and serious sexual offences. She obtained her Higher Rights of Audience in 2004 and became a frontline manager in 2005.
Siobhan has been at the forefront of the work undertaken by the CPS to tackle Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) - domestic violence, rape and other violent offences in which the victims are predominantly women. She is now the National CCP Lead for the CPS on rape and serious sexual offence prosecutions.
Sean Kyne, Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor
Sean is Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor with responsibility for the Crown Court Unit.
Sean qualified as a solicitor in 2002 and joined the Civil Service in 2003. He previously worked in private commercial and criminal practice.
He was appointed as District Crown Prosecutor in 2012, Senior District Crown Prosecutor in 2018, and Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor in 2021.
Sean presently holds the regional portfolio for Violence against Women and Girls and the national portfolio for all British Transport Police prosecutions.
Ben Samples, Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor
Ben joined the West Midlands Area in November 2024 as a Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor. He has strategic responsibility for the Complex Casework Unit and Rape and Serious Sexual Offences Unit.
Ben qualified as a solicitor in 2003 and practised in criminal defence in the East Midlands. He joined CPS in 2008 as a Senior Crown Prosecutor and moved to the South West Region in 2013. He specialised in Complex Casework and was promoted to District Crown Prosecutor in 2017 with responsibility for the Rape and Serious Sexual Offences Unit. He returned to the Complex Casework Unit as a District Crown Prosecutor in 2018 and led the Unit from 2021 as a Senior District Crown Prosecutor until his move to the West Midlands.
Sonia McPherson, Area Business Manager
Sonia is the Area Business Manager and has responsibility for delivering the Operational Business across the West Midlands Area.
As well as having oversight of all our business functions, Sonia is responsible for staff and financial management, performance monitoring and the implementation of all our operational business systems.
Working alongside our Chief Crown Prosecutor, Sonia’s role is to ensure the appropriate resources are in place for the Area team to operate effectively and efficiently.
Sonia began her career with the CPS in 1994. She joined the West Midlands Area as an administrator and has held a variety of roles since then including Case Progression Manager, Unit Manager, Head of the Area Operations Centre, and Senior Operational Business Manager.
Our Magistrates’ Court Unit prosecute offences of domestic violence, assaults, criminal damage, minor public disorder incidents, minor traffic offences (excluding those dealt with by the police as police-led prosecutions), possession of drugs, dangerous dog offences, offences of dishonesty and commercial burglaries.
The list is not exhaustive but generally comprises of any offence where the maximum permitted sentence for each offence does not exceed six months' imprisonment or one year if two or more relevant offences are to be considered.
The Crown Court Unit deals with cases such as murder, robberies, serious assaults, dwelling house burglaries, complex fraud, the supply and trafficking of drugs, and the most serious road traffic offences especially those that result in a fatality.
The Complex Casework Unit houses a team work in collaboration with the police to tackle organised and serious cross border crime, and to robustly tackle and disrupt criminal enterprises.
The bulk of their casework arises from serious and organised crime, particularly drugs importation and distribution, money laundering, organised crime group multi defendant homicide and serious fraud, usually involving a value of over £1million plus at least one element of complexity such as multiple defendants/companies/victims and/or complex financial/restraint issues.
The Rape and Serious Sexual Offences Unit is a dedicated and specialised team who prosecutes cases such as rape, serious sexual offences, child abuse, child sexual exploitation, honour based violence and Female Genital Mutilation.
The staff on the unit all have a great deal of understanding of the sensitivities of prosecuting cases of this nature and how difficult and harrowing it can be for a victim from the first step of making a complaint to the police, through to giving evidence in a trial.
The CPS Serious Violence, Organised Crime and Exploitation Unit (SVOCE) – the first of its kind – was launched in the CPS West Midlands region in July 2021. The Unit brings together a team of prosecutors and paralegal staff who have extensive experience of prosecuting cases involving serious gang-related violence, serious drug dealing offences (including county lines) and modern slavery and exploitation. The Unit is part of the Complex Casework Unit.
Working with you
CPS West Midlands continues to engage with the diverse communities that we serve in order to ensure that we make this region a safer place to live, work and visit.
We acknowledge that public trust is measured against our ability to work with members of our local communities in key areas, which is why have we established regional Local Scrutiny and Community Involvement Panels to help us with our work on hate crimes and violence against women and girls.
Our aim is to inform, listen, work with and in turn, be informed by those living and working across the West Midlands region.