Capital punishment in the United Kingdom predates the formation of the UK,having been used within the British Isles from ancient times until the second half of the 20th century. The last executions in the United Kingdom were by hanging,and took place in 1964;capital punishment for murder was suspended in 1965 and finally abolished in 1969. Although unused,the death penalty remained a legally defined punishment for certain offences such as treason until it was completely abolished in 1998;the last execution for treason took place in 1946. In 2004 the 13th Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights became binding on the United Kingdom;it prohibits the restoration of the death penalty as long as the UK is a party to the convention.
Sir Samuel Roy Meadow is a British retired paediatrician infamous for facilitating several wrongful convictions of mothers for murdering their babies. He was awarded the Donald Paterson prize of the British Paediatric Association in 1968 for a study of the effects on parents of having a child in hospital. In 1977,he published an academic paper describing a phenomenon dubbed Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSbP). In 1980 he was awarded a professorial chair in paediatrics at St James's University Hospital,Leeds,and in 1998,he was knighted for services to child health.
Harry Kenneth Woolf,Baron Woolf,is a British life peer and retired barrister and judge. He was Master of the Rolls from 1996 until 2000 and Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales from 2000 until 2005. The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 made him the first Lord Chief Justice to be President of the Courts of England and Wales. He was a Non-Permanent Judge of the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong from 2003 to 2012. He sits in the House of Lords as a crossbencher.
Timothy John Evans was a Welshman who was wrongfully accused of murdering his wife Beryl and infant daughter Geraldine at their residence in Notting Hill,London. In January 1950,Evans was tried and convicted of the murder of his daughter,and on 9 March he was executed by hanging.
Sir John Grant McKenzie Laws was a Lord Justice of Appeal. He served from 1999 to 2016. He was the Goodhart Visiting Professor of Legal Science at the University of Cambridge,and an Honorary Fellow of Robinson College,Cambridge.
The Guildford Four and Maguire Seven were the collective names of two groups of people,mostly Irish,who were wrongly convicted in English courts in 1975 and 1976 for the Guildford pub bombings of 5 October 1974,and the Woolwich pub bombing of 7 November 1974. All the convictions were eventually quashed after long campaigns for justice,and the cases,along with those of the Birmingham Six,shattered public confidence in the integrity of the English criminal justice system.
Geoffrey Dawson Lane,Baron Lane,was a British barrister and judge who served as Lord Chief Justice of England from 1980 to 1992,having previously served as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary from 1977 until 1980.
Sir Adrian Bruce Fulford is a retired Lord Justice of Appeal. From 2017 to 2019,he was the first Investigatory Powers Commissioner,and was the Vice-President of the Court of Appeal in 2019,succeeding Lady Justice Hallett.
The ice cream wars were turf wars in the East End of Glasgow,Scotland,in the 1980s between rival criminal organisations selling drugs and stolen goods from ice cream vans. Van operators were involved in frequent violence and intimidation tactics,the most notable example of which involved a driver and his family who were killed in an arson attack that resulted in a twenty-year court battle. The conflicts generated widespread public outrage,and earned the Strathclyde Police the nickname of "Serious Chimes Squad" for its perceived failure to address them.
Sir Leslie James Herron was a prominent Australian barrister,judge,Chief Justice and Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales. Biographer Martha Rutledge describes him as being "interested,interesting and with a lively sense of humour",but that he "conducted his court with consideration,dignity and mercy". The ferry The Lady Herron was named after his wife.
Sir Gary Robert Hickinbottom is a British judge who currently serves as President of Welsh Tribunals and as Knight Principal of the Imperial Society of Knights Bachelor. In 2008,he became the fourth solicitor to be appointed a High Court judge,after Michael Sachs in 1993,Lawrence Collins in 2000,and Henry Hodge in 2004.
Roger John Laugharne Thomas,Baron Thomas of Cwmgiedd,FLSW is a British judge. He served as Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales from 2013 to 2017.
Sir Brian Henry Leveson is a retired English judge who served as the President of the Queen's Bench Division and Head of Criminal Justice.
Jeffrey Blackett is a British former judge and Royal Navy officer with the rank of Commodore. He was Judge Advocate General of the Armed Forces from 2004 to 2020 and among the cases over which he presided was that of "Marine A". Blackett was criticised by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) for sentencing Sgt Alexander Blackman RM to a life sentence for murder,as he failed to give the board the option to pass a lesser sentence of manslaughter. According to the report,the CCRC,which investigates miscarriages of justice,said Judge Blackett was guilty of a "material irregularity" in the original trial,due to an "apparent failure to recognise the position regarding manslaughter during the trial and to direct the board appropriately". Subsequently the Court Martial Appeal Court rejected any criticism of Blackett. They said:"We could see no basis for any criticism of the conduct of the Court Martial by the Judge Advocate General. He left the issues which had been raised by the prosecution and the defence during the hearing of the Court Martial to the Board in an entirely fair and proper manner." Alexander Blackman's murder conviction was eventually quashed in 2017 after a successful appeal.
Céline Figard was a French woman who went missing and was murdered during a visit to the United Kingdom in December 1995. She accepted a lift from a lorry driver at the Chieveley services on the M4 in Chieveley,Berkshire,on 19 December,but never arrived at her destination. Following an appeal for information on her whereabouts and police enquiries,her body was discovered on 29 December,at a lay-by on the A449 in Hawford,Worcestershire. A post-mortem examination determined she had been strangled and bludgeoned to death.
Sir Timothy Victor Holroyde,PC,styled The Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Holroyde,is an English Court of Appeal judge,formerly a judge of the High Court of Justice of England and Wales,Queen's Bench Division. He was appointed to the Court of Appeal in October 2017. He was sworn of the Privy Council in 2017. In 2015 he was appointed a member of the Sentencing Council for England and Wales,and served as its Chairman between 2018 and 2022. In June 2022 he was appointed Vice-President of the Court of Appeal,succeeding Lord Justice Fulford.
Ian Duncan Burnett,Baron Burnett of Maldon,,is a British judge who served as Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales from 2017 to 2023.
Sir John Megaw,was a British judge who eventually rose to Lord Justice of Appeal and Irish international rugby union player.
