London South

Lionel Idan, Chief Crown Prosecutor

Lionel took up the post of Chief Crown Prosecutor for London South in September 2020 and has overall responsibility for all prosecutions in the Area. He was called to the Bar in 1996 and defended and prosecuted in crime and immigration law until joining the CPS in 2005 as a rape and domestic violence specialist.

In 2007, Lionel was appointed a District Crown Prosecutor in London and in 2009 he was appointed a Senior District Crown Prosecutor with responsibility for one of the six London districts. During this period Lionel was the Strategic lead in London for Domestic Violence and for the Olympics in 2012. Lionel has also acted as a Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor (DCCP) for CPS London and has a passion for championing the rights and justice for victims and witnesses, having previously written and delivered a CPD approved training course on victimless prosecutions.

In 2014, Lionel was recognised in the CPS London Awards for his outstanding contribution to the Area in his role as Legal and Stakeholder Manager. He was also appointed a Disclosure Gateway Reviewer and has conducted disclosure reviews on some of London's most complex and high profile cases.

In 2015, Lionel was appointed as the Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS West Midlands and was responsible for successfully rolling out the Transforming Summary Justice programme across the region's magistrates' courts.

Between 2016 and 2018, while overseeing of the Region’s Crown Court Complex Casework and RASSO units, Lionel also led the only national cross-government agency project on Domestic Abuse which developed and successfully implemented the DA Best Practice Framework across the country.

In 2019, Lionel spent time as the Deputy Head of the national Specialist Fraud Division which handles the largest and most complex economic crime cases across the country, before returning to his role in the West Midlands.

Kris Venkatasami, Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor

Kris is the Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor with responsibility for all magistrates’ court and domestic abuse prosecutions in London South. He took on the position in June 2017 after having spent three years as DCCP in CPS South East.

Kris has spent much of his career working in London, progressing to become Senior District Crown Prosecutor, responsible for Crown Court and magistrates’ court work across North West London. He then moved to head up the Special Casework Unit in the capital, dealing with a number of high profile cases, including the Lord McAlpine Twitter case.

In 2013, he was appointed a temporary Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor in London, looking after magistrates’ court work, before joining South East.

Jo Coleman, Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor

Jo is the Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor (DCCP) responsible for Crown Court cases in London South. She joined the CPS 18 years ago as a Senior Crown Prosecutor (SCP) in Thames Valley. Prior to that she was a defence solicitor in private practice for seven years.

Having worked as an SCP, Jo was appointed a District Crown Prosecutor (DCP) in 2003 and undertook a number of DCP roles over the Magistrates’ and Crown Court teams across Thames Valley and then Thames and Chiltern, following the restructure of CPS Areas.

Jo had a period as acting Senior DCP heading the Complex Casework Unit (CCU) in Thames Valley in 2010. She also undertook a role as project manager for rolling out digital working in Thames and Chiltern in 2012.

In June 2014 she became DCCP in CPS Thames and Chiltern. She led the Magistrates’ Court team until May 2017 when she took over as DCCP for the Crown Court, CCU and RASSO teams in Thames and Chiltern. She joined London South as DCCP in August 2019.

Lynette Woodrow, Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor

Lynette Woodrow is the Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor with responsibility for the pan London Complex Casework Unit and Rape and Serious Sexual Offence (RASSO) prosecutions in South London. She joined the CPS 2008 and came to the London CPS in 2014. Before her current position, Lynette had specialised in prosecuting domestic abuse cases and cases and vulnerable victims for most of her career.

In 2016 she was promoted temporarily to Senior District Crown Prosecutor on the Magistrates’ Court team for advocacy and was the London lead for domestic abuse advocacy. Lynette became the DCCP for RASSO and CCU in 2018 and is the national CPS lead for modern slavery.

Jennifer Offord, Area Business Manager

Jennifer joined the CPS in 2006 as a witness care officer, progressing to manage the witness care unit. Since then, she has worked in a variety of roles, including Paralegal Business Manager and as a project manager in our Headquarters team, responsible for a series of national projects.

She became the Business Manager for the Operations Directorate and Private Office, before taking up the post of Area Business Manager (ABM) for CPS South East in February 2017. She joined CPS London South as ABM in June 2020. She has overall responsibility for the Operational Delivery and Business Operations for the Area.

Our Magistrates’ Court Unit prosecutes offences of domestic abuse, assaults, criminal damage, minor public disorder incidents, all but the most serious traffic offences, 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 attempted murder, robberies, serious assaults, dwelling house burglaries, complex fraud and the supply and trafficking of drugs.

The unit deals with the most complex criminal cases in North and South London. Made up of highly experienced and skilled lawyers and paralegal officers, the team has in the last year gained the first successful prosecution for female genital mutilation and also the first two unregistered school prosecutions. The unit works closely with the police in London (Metropolitan and City of London) to tackle serious and organised crime, including trafficking, large scale drugs importation and distribution, and money laundering.

The RASSO Unit is a dedicated and specialised team which prosecutes cases such as rape, serious sexual offences, child abuse, child sexual exploitation and so-called 'honour based' violence. 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.