Sweeney was appointed Presiding Judge of the South Eastern CIrcuit in 2012, and the Judge in Charge of the Terrorism List in 2013. He was also the Judge responsible for European Liaison in relation to criminal law issues, and was a member of the Judges’ Council.[10]
He was also involved in numerous other high profile cases. He was the presiding judge in the trial of Rolf Harris for various counts of indecent assault dating back to the 1960s.[19][20] He was the sentencing judge for the murder of Sabina Nessa, sentencing Koci Selemaj to a minimum of 36 years in prison.[21] He was also the presiding judge in the Essex lorry deaths trials where 39 Vietnamese people were killed in the back of a lorry; four perpetrators received a combined 92 years in prison.[22]
Sweeney is also an Associate Professor at the School of Law at Nottingham University.[10]