Michael Morland

Last updated
Sir Michael Morland
Justice of the High Court
In office
17 May 1989 2004
Personal details
Born
Michael Morland

(1929-07-16)16 July 1929
NationalityBritish
Children2
Education Stowe School
Christ Church, Oxford

Sir Michael Morland (born 16 July 1929) is a British barrister and retired judge. He was a Justice of the High Court (Queen's Bench Division) from 1989 to 2004. He is best remembered as the judge who tried Robert Thompson and Jon Venables for the murder of James Bulger.

Contents

Biography

Educated at Stowe School and Christ Church, Oxford, Morland served in the Grenadier Guards as a second lieutenant from 1948 to 1949, seeing service in Malaya. He was called to the bar by the Inner Temple in 1953 (becoming a bencher of the inn in 1979). He then joined the Northern Circuit, becoming a Queen's Counsel in 1972.

Morland was a recorder from 1972 to 1989, when he was appointed to the High Court, receiving the customary knighthood. Assigned to the Queen's Bench Division, he was Presiding Judge of the Northern Circuit from 1991 to 1995.

In 1993, Morland tried Robert Thompson and Jon Venables for the murder of James Bulger. Upon conviction, they became the youngest convicted murderers in modern British history. Morland sentenced them to be detained at Her Majesty's pleasure, with a recommendation that they should be kept in custody for "very, very many years to come", recommending a minimum term of eight years. He also lifted the anonymity orders on the two boys after they were convicted. [1]

Morland retired in 2004 upon reaching the statutory age. [2] In retirement, Morland chaired the inquiry into the killing of Rosemary Nelson. [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry Woolf, Baron Woolf</span> British life peer and retired barrister and judge

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heather Hallett, Baroness Hallett</span> English judge (born 1949)

Heather Carol Hallett, Baroness Hallett,, is a retired English judge of the Court of Appeal and a crossbench life peer. The first woman to chair the Bar Council and the fifth woman to sit in the Court of Appeal, Hallett led the independent inquest into the 7/7 bombings. In April 2019, she was appointed Chair of the Security Vettings Appeal Panel. In December 2021, she was announced as the chair of the public inquiry into the UK Government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. On 29 June 2022, the Government accepted Baroness Hallett's proposed terms of reference for the inquiry, with minor changes suggested by the devolved administrations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of James Bulger</span> 1993 child murder in Liverpool, England

James Patrick Bulger was a two-year-old boy from Kirkby, Merseyside, England, who was abducted, tortured, and murdered by two 10-year-old boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, on 12 February 1993. Thompson and Venables led Bulger away from the New Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle, after his mother had taken her eyes off him momentarily. His mutilated body was found on a railway line two and a half miles away in Walton, Liverpool, two days after his abduction.

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.

Sir Edwin Frank Jowitt is a British former High Court judge. Notable cases overseen by Jowitt include the trial of the murderers of Ross Parker.

Sir Nicholas Richard Maybury Hilliard is a British judge who was the Recorder of London, an ancient and senior legal post at the Old Bailey, and before that Common Serjeant of London, the Recorder's second. He was appointed to that office in May 2013. From 6 January 2015 he was Recorder of London, the senior judge at the Old Bailey. In October 2019 it was announced that was to be appointed as a judge of the High Court of Justice. He took up that appointment on 19 November 2019 ceasing to be Recorder of London.

Sir Alan Fraser Wilkie, styled The Honourable Mr Justice Wilkie, is a former British judge and barrister. He retired on 31 January 2017.

Sir David Michael Bean is a British judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales.

Sir John Thayne Forbes is a retired British judge and barrister. As a High Court judge, he presided over the trial of Harold Shipman who was convicted of 15 murders in 2000 and subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment. Shipman is now recognised as one of the most prolific serial killers in history. He led the Al-Sweady Inquiry, a five-year public enquiry that reported in 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 is a United Kingdom Act of Parliament that advances a number of agendas related to criminal justice. It instituted the National Probation Service as well as the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service. The Act also makes the parents of persistent truants criminally liable and subject to a maximum penalty of three months in prison, a legal change that led to the first imprisonment of parents in 2002.

Sir Simon Lane Tuckey is a retired British barrister and judge. He was a Lord Justice of Appeal from 1998 to 2008.

Sir John Arthur Dalziel Owen was a British barrister and High Court judge.

Turlough O'Donnell, PC was an Irish lawyer and judge. He was a Lord Justice of Appeal of Northern Ireland from 1979 to 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernard Caulfield (judge)</span> British barrister and High Court judge

Sir Bernard Caulfield was a British barrister and High Court judge who served in the Queen's Bench Division from 1968 to 1989. Known for his verbal floridness in court, he is perhaps best remembered for presiding over Jeffrey Archer's libel action against the Daily Star in 1987, which later led to Archer's conviction and imprisonment for perjury.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Gatehouse</span> British barrister and judge

Sir Robert Alexander Gatehouse was a British barrister and judge. He was a Justice of the High Court from 1985 to 1996.

Sir Neil Stephen Garnham is a British High Court judge.

Sir Julian Nicholas Goose is a British High Court judge.

Sir Mark Arthur Wall styled The Honourable Mr Justice Wall is a British High Court judge.

Dame Mary Elizabeth Stacey, is a British High Court judge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Eyre</span> British High-Court Judge

Sir Stephen John Arthur Eyre, styled Mr Justice Eyre, is a British High Court judge.

References

  1. "The Bulger Murder: Parents devastated by loss of anonymity: Naming boys leaves legacy of fear". The Independent . 26 November 1993.
  2. "Farewell to Morland J". 5RB. 15 July 2004.
  3. "Murdered solicitor inquiry will be independent, says judge". The Times . 19 April 2005.