Both Sides of the Bench

Barrington Black

Description

The autobiography of one of the UK's foremost defence solicitors who was later a Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate and Circuit Judge in the Crown Court before becoming a Supreme Court Justice in Gibraltar.

Sujets

• Droit et juridique
• Legal history

Informations

• Publié par: Waterside Press
• Date de parution: 28 octobre 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781910979006
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

Both Sides of the Bench
Barrington Black
Copyright and publication details
Both Sides of the Bench
Barrington Black
ISBN 978-1-909976-31-3 (Paperback)
ISBN 978-1-910979-00-6 (Epub ebook)
ISBN 978-1-910979-01-3 (Adobe ebook)
Copyright © 2015, 2016 This work is the copyright of Barrington Black. All intellectual property and associated rights are hereby asserted and reserved by him in full compliance with UK, European and international law. No part of this book may be copied, reproduced, stored in any retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, or in any language, including in hard copy or via the internet, without the prior written permission of the publishers to whom all such rights have been assigned worldwide.
Cover design © 2015 Waterside Press using an original photograph © Barrington Black. Design by www.gibgob.com
Main UK distributor Gardners Books, 1 Whittle Drive, Eastbourne, East Sussex, BN23 6QH . Tel: [phone]; [e-mail] ; www.gardners.com
North American distribution Ingram Book Company, One Ingram Blvd, La Vergne, TN 37086, USA. Tel: [phone]; [e-mail]
Cataloguing-In-Publication Data A catalogue record can be obtained from the British Library.
Printed by Lightning Source, Milton Keynes and other locations.
e-book Both Sides of the Bench is available as an ebook and also to subscribers of ­Myilibrary, ­Dawsonera, ­ebrary, and ­Ebscohost.
First published 2015, this revised 1st edition published 2016 by
Waterside Press
Sherfield Gables
Sherfield-on-Loddon
Hook, Hampshire
United Kingdom RG27 0JG
Telephone [phone]
E-mail [e-mail]
Online catalogue WatersidePress.co.uk
Table of Contents
Copyright and publication details iv
Acknowledgements vi
Dedication vii
About the author ix Beginnings 11 Hitler, a Bee in My Father’s Bonnet 15 The War Trundled On 19 Louis Black 23 School Daze 27 “Lloyd George Knew My Uncle” 31 University 35 From Rank Outsider 51 To Becoming an Officer and a Gentleman 63 Clarence Darrow or Perry Mason? 69 This Crime is Just Not Cricket 77 Murder Most Foul 81 Donald Neilson, Known as “The Black Panther” 83 The Heart Valve, the Tie Round the Neck and Alban Beresford Elcock 99 The Murder Where the Victim Was … the Judge 121
The trial 129 Courts Martial 135
A very different location 141 A Sad Day for Justice 143 Some Changes in the Law, and Mainly for the Good 147 Murder Within the Walls of a Prison … and Other Places 161
The Boarded Barn Murders 164
The death of a policeman’s mother 166
An open-and-shut case 168 A Little Nostalgia 171 Deuteronomy Chapters 18–20 179 The Circuit Bench 189 Recycled for an Unexpected Second Innings 199
Index 218
Acknowledgements
My thanks to my faithful staff at Barrington Black LLB, Walker Morris & Coles, Barrington Black & Co, Barrington Black Austin & Co, my former partners Stanley Bland, Ian Percy, Frances Heath, Bob Moore, Kenneth Dickinson and Taryn Turner who then transferred to the bar and carved a fine reputation, to the long-serving staff, my secretary Liz Lord, who I employed on-and-off for nearly 30-years, Kath, Betty the cash, Joan Lloyd, Vanda, Maria, Pat, Wendy, Joan Horsborough, ex-Chief Inspector Jasper Mann, ex-PC Brian Clegg, an outstanding articled clerk Richard Manning, to the staff at Bow Street and Marylebone Magistrates’ Courts, to Judge Roger Sanders and Judge David Mole and Judge Dawn Freedman, Judge Nick Madge and Judge Edward Bailey, and that most important person, the list officer Linda Benjamin, at Harrow Crown Court.
And latterly to all at Gibraltar Supreme Court, the President, Sir Paul Kennedy, Chief Justice Anthony Dudley, Mrs Justice Karen Prescott and Mr Justice Christopher Butler, Hazel Columbo, the chief executive and Andy and all the lovely lady court clerks who kept feeding me sticky buns, who made the sunset of my legal life in Gibraltar so pleasant.
Thanks also to my family to whom this book is dedicated opposite including also my ten grandchildren, Holly, Louis, Lilly, Bella, Alex, Leo, Nathalie, Hannah, Phoebe and Eli. I should perhaps explain that I have mentioned all their names because they firmly indicated that if I didn’t they wouldn’t buy my book, and that’s despite the fact I have offered it to them at a reasonable discount. They all come to tea every Saturday afternoon. They arrive at 4.30 and leave at 6.15, and I have often said that my weekend begins at 6.30.
And last but not least an enormous expression of gratitude to Bryan and Alex Gibson for their expertise and advice in creating this publication.
Dedication
I dedicate this book not only to my parents, who encouraged me to enter the law for what was a most fulfilling career, I dedicate it to Diana and the children who suffered the trauma, the upsets, the long hours I worked, to Jonathan and Harriette who followed me, and Matthew and Anna, who didn’t. To Vinnie, the dog, who listened to me when others wouldn’t.
About the author
Barrington Black was for many years one of the UK’s best-known criminal defence lawyers and founder of a solicitor’s firm in Leeds now commemorated in the name of a practice known as “Black’s”. He was later a Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate (now district judge) following which he became a Circuit Judge serving at various Crown Court centres across London. His final legal role was as one of four Supreme Court Justices in Gibraltar. As a lawyer he appeared in many high profile cases. His incisive letters have frequently been published in newspapers such as The Times, Guardian and Jewish Chronicle whilst he contributed for many years as a legal expert to Richard Whitely’s topical Calendar programme on Yorkshire Television as well as appearing on BBC’s Look North and on radio.
A long-time resident of Harrogate and a local councillor and Parliamentary candidate before moving South to take up his judicial appointment, married to Diana and the father of four children (two of whom are also lawyers) and ten grandchildren, he now lives in North-London.
List of Illustrations
Barrington Black is the one on the left — 8
Grandmother’s sister Auntie Gertie, married to Solomon Levy who played cricket for Gloucester in 1911 — 11
My father with two friends, Alexandria 1944 — 17
Grandmother’s brother, Uncle Louis, the family icon — 21
Circa 1918: Uncle Louis on a tank with Lloyd George, for whom he wrote speeches — 29
President of Leeds University Union 1952 — 33
Leeds University Rag Revue poster 1952 — 37
In front of me is The Princess Royal with Margot Fonteyn — 48
I was told off for telling the colonel how smart he looked — 60
Diana receiving her scroll from the Lord Mayor of London after 38 years as a JP — 73
My Jensen Interceptor at Oxford Crown Court during Neilson’s trial — not an explosion, just boiling over — 81
Hair today, but gone tomorrow — 169
Supreme Court Justice Gibraltar — 196
Barrington Black is the one on the left
Chapter 1
Beginnings
L et’s get it straight right at the start. I was never an idealist. I would not be able to sleep at night if I thought that I had given the impression that I went into law to separate right from wrong, to rescue those treated unjustly, to bring justice to the deprived, to free the oppressed and defend those wrongly accused. It was something far more basic than that. I became a lawyer simply to earn a living, and to spend my days doing something which I enjoyed. The fact that it meant I was in fact helping others was a satisfying addition to that process. But it very nearly didn’t happen. I might well have spent my life filling, drilling and conserving teeth, and I would have hated it.
My childhood memories are sparse, mostly because my childhood was a long time ago. Had I then realised that I would be writing this book I would have made some notes, but even I have never been able to read my own writing, and then it was even worse. Life in Leeds was reasonably comfortable; my mother was an attractive woman and my father tall and good-looking, though the effect was spoilt by his habit of wearing a Burberry-style trench coat with a bowler hat, something which, even though I was only two, I thought was not quite right. He never talked about his business which was something to do with selling radios, or as they were then called, wirelesses. He ran a small Hillman car, and we had a maid who came from a mining village, dressed in a black skirt with a white pinafore and a little white hat. I suggested to my mother that this was rather pretentious, but she replied, “Don’t use long words when you don’t know what they mean,” and she was right.
This was a good time to be a child, for children were not expected to read newspapers or listen to the preparations for the world turmoil being discussed on the wireless. The traffic was not hectic, and you could park your car without being attacked by yellow-clad vultures. On the trams, buses and trains people sat quietly and kept themselves to themselves, no-one shouted into mobile phones and when they did speak it was in a language one understood, or at least I tried to understand. A particularly popular phrase, not, I hasten to add, used at home, was “Eee bah gum”. We didn’t do Latin at nursery school, but I had a sneaking feeling it had something to do with the fact that many people could just not get it into their heads that our main city was no longer called Eboracum , but simply York.
The Yorkshire accent did pose some pitfalls, especially for a man from Leeds whose dog died, and he wanted a memorable replica. He took photos of it to the local goldsmith and asked for a golden statue to be made, the goldsmith asked, “Do you want it 18 carat?” and the Yorkshireman replied, “Nay Lad, don’t be daft, I want it chewin’ a bone.”
People could, in the main be trusted, mugging had not been invented, there were a few instances of highway robbery, but there was little serious crime.