A Life of Crime: The Memoirs of a High Court Judge

A Life of Crime: The Memoirs of a High Court Judge
Harry Ognall

The Hon. Sir Harry Ognall is a retired judge of the High Court, Queen’s Bench Division. For many years, he enjoyed a formidable reputation as an advocate at the criminal Bar. As counsel, and later as judge, he was involved in numerous high-profile trials, both here and abroad.Among many cases as a QC, he prosecuted Peter Sutcliffe, the so-called ‘Yorkshire Ripper’. He successfully defended six officers of the Air Force of Zimbabwe at their trial in Harare, where they faced a charge of treasonable sabotage.As a judge, he presided over the trial of Colin Stagg (the alleged ‘Wimbledon Common murderer’), the trial arising from the Lyme Bay canoe tragedy, and the trial for the first time in the United Kingdom of a doctor’s alleged involvement in euthanasia.Thoughtful and provocative, Sir Harry has advice for the aspiring young advocate, and invests this penetrating memoir with warmth, humour and understanding. His frank portrait of a lifetime in the criminal law offers unique perspectives on some of the most notorious cases of the 20th Century, and fascinating insights into a colourful professional life and the burdens and responsibilities that come with the privilege of high judicial office.

A LIFE OF CRIME

The Memoirs of a High Court Judge

Harry Ognall

Copyright (#uce5c7da9-8b3d-5296-978a-2e1dee8255a3)

William Collins

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

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This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2017

Copyright © 2017 Harry Ognall

Cover photograph © Annings Digital Photography, Ilkley

Harry Ognall asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780008267469

Ebook Edition © November 2017 ISBN: 9780008267476

Version: 2018-11-06

Dedication (#uce5c7da9-8b3d-5296-978a-2e1dee8255a3)

To Sally, for so many reasons.

‘That’s it, then’

‘There are worse prisons than words’

Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind

Contents

Cover (#u6369bc92-f448-5122-80ef-2ec9035921d8)

Title Page (#u7a2b79a4-f23f-5ed4-9806-b0783a7527a0)

Copyright (#u79689a25-40b7-5c53-885d-d5887cc216eb)

Dedication (#u7c918ff7-dcc6-59bc-b270-4e3bd07082c4)

Epigraph (#u6a6104ec-bf75-5ed0-8f15-9d51f1640289)

Prologue (#ua98ef806-062b-5592-b72b-7d60ba0a0af2)

Chapter 1: Beginnings (#ua300ca61-115a-54a6-9553-79902287c9f7)

Chapter 2: An Opening Door (#u59bc731f-6d0b-561a-a3f2-e101883f78fb)

Chapter 3: The Silk Road (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 4: Advice to the Young Advocate (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 5: A Tribute and a Testament (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 6: Scarlet and Ermine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 7: At the End of the Day … (#litres_trial_promo)

Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

PROLOGUE (#uce5c7da9-8b3d-5296-978a-2e1dee8255a3)

Chinese wisdom encourages us to take comfort that ‘even a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’. But what if the journey is not one that lies ahead, but one of retrospect? Does that need less resolve – or more?

My life in the law was filled with so much that enjoyed a high profile at the time, and which has left a legacy of continuing interest, and sometimes fascination. That said, there is an obvious danger that, as a central actor in those dramas, my recall may now be corrupted by the erosion of the passing years. Or my account may be tainted by the temptations of egotism, or the lure of the apocryphal.

And so I have put off this moment for a very long time, until it has become very clear that I should either embark now, or never. I must do my best to tell it as it really was.

1 (#uce5c7da9-8b3d-5296-978a-2e1dee8255a3)

BEGINNINGS (#uce5c7da9-8b3d-5296-978a-2e1dee8255a3)

What follows will be the odyssey of my life at the English criminal Bar and as a Queen’s Bench judge, recounted through the prism of some of the more memorable trials in which I was involved. But every narrative must have a beginning, and my early years seem to me to be as logical a starting place as any. Wholly to ignore the first twenty-five years of my life seems to me, anyway, to leave a void. However accidental my ultimate choice of career may seem to have been, perhaps within my early years is to be found the seed bed out of which my future grew.