When a 13-year-old girl was detained in the arrivals hall at Manchester Airport in 2002 carrying heroin worth almost £1m, it was the pioneering criminal solicitor Mary Monson who was called in. Monson, who has died aged 74, was recognised as one of the north-west of England’s most experienced defence lawyers for juveniles.
The teenage drug mule, who appeared older than her years, had flown in from Islamabad in Pakistan. She was charged with importing 11kg of heroin but was too scared to talk. Monson cleared her diary for the case, and over the next three months visited the terrified child almost every day, gradually winning her trust.
In court, the charge was eventually dropped; the prosecution acknowledged that the girl was “more sinned against than sinning”. The case may not have been a classic courtroom victory but it was a vindication of Monson’s technique of dedicating time to secure a full understanding of – and providing friendship to – those caught up in the criminal justice system.
Her clients were often from poor or immigrant backgrounds. As her reputation grew, her high profile trials included the Strangeways prison riot, “Gunchester” era gang killings of the 1980s and 90s, and the racially motivated Anthony Walker murder in Liverpool. More recently she was involved in regulatory cases such as those involving Cambridge Analytica/Facebook, Unaoil and the Grenfell investigation.
The high court judge Sir Anthony Hayden, who worked with her, described Monson as a “powerhouse of energy, not always organised or structured, but completely indefatigable,” adding that “she provided a voice for those who otherwise would not have been heard in the system”.
Monson was born in Tufnell Park, north London, and was brought up in what her family described as “respectable poverty”. Both her parents were from Ireland; her mother, Margaret (nee Connor), had left a County Mayo smallholding aged 14 to work as a servant, and her father, Joseph, also emigrated to England, where he became head porter at a London hotel.
One of four children, Mary, the eldest, attended Our Lady of Sion grammar school in Holloway before going to Holborn College of Law in London, graduating in 1971. After working for the Automobile Association, she moved to Manchester in 1974 and became an articled clerk with Flint and Holmes solicitors.
Her experiences in magistrates courts transformed her approach. The children she represented often did not have proper shoes and were rarely accompanied by a parent or adult. Some had been taught by older criminals, Fagin-like, to commit burglaries.
Before the 1984 Police and Criminal Evidence Act, officers’ evidence was invariably believed. Monson was shocked at the sight of blood-stained walls and stories of youngsters being beaten. She challenged the police version of events and regularly won her clients bail.
In a case where a cabin attendant faced charges of stealing miniature drink bottles and cigarettes, Monson arranged for a procession of pilots, fresh from long haul flights, to appear in court delivering testimony on behalf of the wrongfully accused defendant, who was acquitted. Hard-working, she was never a solicitor to accept statements at face value or to suffer fools gladly.
The barrister Michael Mansfield, who stayed with Monson when they worked on cases together and recalled her terrifying rottweiler having to be restrained on his visits, praised her as “intrepid” in pursuing defence leads, for always being accessible to clients and for never giving up. She represented, he said, the “pinnacle of public service lawyers”.
As soon as she could, in 1979, Monson had set up her own solicitors’ practice. That year she had also married Leon Kotrie, a Ukraine-born businessman who imported kosher vodka. When he later fell ill, they faced financial problems; their home was sold and Monson had to set up a new law firm.
Leon died in 1996, but despite the personal difficulties she faced, Monson continued practising until shortly before her death. In later years she took up the cause of homeless people, donating generously to a breakfast club at the Salford and Eccles Unemployment Centre. Although not politically active, her sympathies were with socialism.
When Donald Trump made his state visit to Britain in 2019, Monson organised a counter demonstration – an open-top bus tour of Manchester. “I have regarded my job as trying to apply a sticking plaster to the poor, disaffected and abused in society,” she told a radio interviewer. “I’m making a moral protest against his values … He stands only for Trump and greed … I’m interested in promoting humanity.”
She is survived by two sons, Joseph and Liam, who both now work for the family law firm, Mary Monson solicitors, and Kotrie’s daughter from a previous relationship, Allie.
• Mary Monson, solicitor, born 25 February 1948; died 26 March 2022
