Peter Taylor, Baron Taylor of Gosforth

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For other people with the same name, see Peter Taylor.

Lord Justice of Appeal
In office
1988–1992
Personal details
Born
Peter Murray Taylor

(1930-05-01)1 May 1930
Royal Grammar School, Newcastle
Alma materPembroke College, Cambridge

Peter Murray Taylor, Baron Taylor of Gosforth,

PC (1 May 1930 – 28 April 1997) was the Lord Chief Justice of England
from 1992 until 1996.

Family

Taylor came from a

Royal Grammar School. During World War II, Newcastle was subject to bombing raids and Taylor was evacuated to Penrith where he lived in a house without either running water or mains electricity.[2]

Early career

In 1951, Taylor won an exhibition to

Queen's Counsel in 1967; he occasionally appeared for the defence. On one such occasion, judge Sir Melford Stevenson deemed him a threat to the administration of justice.[clarification needed][citation needed
]

Famous cases

Taylor attracted attention from 1973 when he appeared for the prosecution in several cases connected to the corrupt architect

Member of Parliament for Blyth Valley
who was found to have submitted fraudulent election expenses.

The most high-profile trial in which Taylor appeared took place in 1979 and the defendant was former Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe who was accused of conspiracy to murder. Although all involved were acquitted, most observers put this down to the summing-up of the trial judge and the malpractice of the prosecution witnesses; Taylor won praise for his handling of the case. His opening address is frequently quoted; Taylor's style of oratory was deliberately concise and straightforward but he had a talent for a punning literary allusion.

Judge

Taylor had been first appointed a recorder (part-time judge) in 1969 and served as a recorder in the Crown Court from 1972. After serving as Chairman of the Bar Council for 1979–80, he was made a full High Court judge in the Queen's Bench Division, receiving the customary

Talaq and notified the authorities in Pakistan had not divorced his wife according to English law.[citation needed
]

In 1984, Taylor largely sided with

telephone tapping of Joan Ruddock
).

Court of Appeal

In 1988, Taylor was promoted to the

Court of Appeal. There he became known to the public on 17 April 1989 when he was commissioned by the government to undertake an inquiry into the Hillsborough disaster two days previously. The Taylor Report he produced led to the introduction of all-seater stadia
at all top English football clubs, and the removal of fences around fans sitting areas. Standing accommodation was seen as a risk due to the increased chances of a "crush", and the security fences which Taylor describes as treating spectators like "prisoners of war" were also a hazard in crushes as they claimed the lives of most of the 97 people who ultimately lost their lives at Hillsborough; 94 of them died on the day of the disaster, a 95th died several days later, and the final victim died in March 1993 having never regained consciousness.

Taylor's recommendations, published on 29 January 1990, stated that all First and Second Division (which became the

Football League should follow suit by August 1999. However, the Football Association later ruled that the smaller clubs could retain standing accommodation provided that their stadiums met safety requirements, while clubs promoted to the upper reaches of the league would be allowed standing accommodation at their stadiums for up to three years after promotion.[citation needed
]

Taylor's popularity as a former Chairman of the Bar Council and as a fair judge who could plausibly claim to have been in touch with all aspects of British life led to his being considered the favourite to take over from

County of Northumberland on 27 April 1992.[4]

Lord Chief Justice

Where Lane had been extremely reticent about giving interviews, Taylor was determined to be as open as possible. Not only did he start his tenure by holding an unprecedented press conference, he appeared as a guest on

Question Time and as a castaway on Desert Island Discs. Within a few months of taking over he accepted an invitation to give the annual Dimbleby Lecture on "The judiciary in the nineties
" in which he cast himself as a reformer. He supported moves to stop judges wearing wigs in court.

Unlike previous holders of the office, Taylor concentrated almost exclusively on appeals rather than acting as a trial judge. This was partly because a backlog had grown up but also because of the much increased concern over a series of cases going back many years which were being proved to be miscarriages of justice. Taylor differed from his immediate predecessor in considering this an immensely serious issue, and knew from his own experience of prosecuting Judith Ward and

Stefan Kiszko
that many more cases could come to light. This led him to strong support of the full disclosure of prosecution evidence (he also supported moves towards disclosure of defence evidence).

Taylor was with the grain of public opinion in supporting stronger sentences on

drunk drivers who killed, and he also extended the range of defences available to domestic violence
victims who fought back. He also extended the concept of murder to include the abortion of unborn children in their mother's womb. Due to his unusual openness, his view was often heard on matters of political controversy: he could live with the change to allow juries to draw adverse inferences from a defendant's silence when interviewed, but opposed moves restricting the right of an accused to elect trial by jury.

Taylor was profoundly affected by the death of his wife Irene in 1995. Shortly afterwards he was diagnosed with a brain tumour. The last appeal he heard was that of

Home Secretary, Michael Howard, to introduce mandatory sentencing, which he said "must involve a denial of justice". Taylor had defended the traditional right of the defendant to silence, a battle ultimately lost, and criticised the delay in setting up a body to review miscarriages of justice, something recommended by the 1993 Royal Commission headed by Viscount Runciman of Doxford.[2]

Illness and death

Peter Taylor, Baron Taylor of Gosforth, died of cancer in 1997, aged 66, at his home in Guildford, Surrey. He was survived by three daughters: Ruth, Deborah and Judith; and a son, Louis.[2][1]

References

  1. ^ a b "Lord Taylor of Gosforth Is Dead; Chief English Appeals Judge, 66". The New York Times. 1 May 1997.
  2. ^ a b c Obituary, independent.co.uk. Accessed 9 January 2024.
  3. ^ "No. 48384". The London Gazette. 28 November 1980. p. 16524.
  4. ^ "No. 52908". The London Gazette. 30 April 1992. p. 7533.

External links

Legal offices
Preceded by Lord Chief Justice of England
1992–1996 		Succeeded by
The Lord Bingham of Cornhill
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