Alan Tyrrell

Alan Rupert Tyrrell QC (born June 27, 1933 in Bolobo , Belgian Congo ; † October 23, 2014 ) was a British lawyer and politician of the Conservative Party who, among other things, was a defense lawyer for the Beast of Islington and between 1979 and 1984 a member of the European Parliament and then mainly dealt with questions of European law as a lawyer . As a member of parliament, he campaigned in vain for the European Parliament to have only one seat in Brussels instead of dividing it between Strasbourg and Luxembourg .

Life

Barrister and recorder

Tyrrell, a minister's son, graduated after attending the Grammar School of Bridport studying law at the London School of Economics (LSE) and received in 1956 his legal admission as a barrister at the Bar Association ( Inns of Court ) of Gray's Inn . In the following years he appeared in both criminal and commercial proceedings as an attorney and was appointed as a recorder at the Crown Court in 1972 . In 1976 he was chosen for its twenty years of experience lawyer for Attorney General (Queen's Counsel) appointed.

In the aftermath of the so-called "Winter of Discontent" ( Winter of Discontent ) of 1978/1979, which led to production losses of ten percent and the layoff of 235,000 workers, he represented workers in numerous proceedings, including the setting up of pickets . One of them was an appeal before a commercial court in which he represented five van drivers from the Safeway chain who were fired for refusing to picket the Warrington supermarket depot. This case was still pending when he was campaigning for a seat in the European Parliament in June 1979.

Member of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1984

In the first European elections in 1979 Tyrrell ran for the Conservative Party and was elected member of the 1st European Parliament with a majority of 13,015 votes in front of the opponent of the Labor Party in the constituency of London East .

During his membership in Parliament he belonged to the European Democratic Group and was a member of the Committee on the Rules of Procedure and Petitions from July 20, 1979 to July 10, 1980 and at the same time a member of the Committee on Legal Affairs from July 20, 1979 to July 23, 1984 and between the Member of the delegation for relations with Austria on 11 April 1983 and 23 July 1984 .

As a Member of Parliament in February 1980, he spoke out against French plans to enlarge the Parliament building in Strasbourg, pointing out that Members of the European Parliament rather than governments should have the final say on the location of Parliament.

He suggested an embargo on the sale of all surplus commodities to the Soviet Union because of its intervention in Afghanistan and the expulsion of the physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov before and also pushed for changes in the by the government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher introduced bill for Nationality Act (British Nationality Bill) to reduce the risk of statelessness for foreign-born or resident grandchildren of UK nationals.

At the height of the Northern Ireland conflict, Tyrrell headed a committee of MEPs who advocated equal principles for extraditions between member states. The proposal was addressed directly to the Republic of Ireland , whose constitution did not allow extradition for political reasons.

Electoral defeats in 1984 and 1989

Despite his duties as a MP, Tyrrell also remained active as a barrister, for example representing a 17-year-old mugger in August 1979 who said it was "unfortunate" that his 75-year-old female victim later died. He also continued to work as a recorder and in 1980 overturned the conviction of a car driver who accused the police of trespassing after they arrested him at his home for previously refusing to take a breath test. One of Tyrrell's most demanding trials came in 1983 when he was the trial attorney for Rudolph Nugent, the Islington Beast . He was charged with six cases of rape, attempted rape, robbery in seven cases and arson in one case. For this, Nugent was sentenced to six life imprisonment and an additional 25 years in prison.

In the 1984 European elections , Tyrrell ran for re-election, but suffered a defeat in his constituency of London East to Labor challenger Carole Tongue , who received 12,159 more votes than him.

He resigned from the European Parliament and devoted himself more to his legal work, focusing on questions of European law due to his experience as a member of parliament. In 1986 he became a Bencher for the Gray's Inn Bar Association. In addition, he was chairman of the European group of the Bar Association and in 1988 also chairman of the Bar Council for international application of law.

In the European elections in 1989 he ran again in the constituency of London East against Carole Tongue, but this time suffered an even more sensitive defeat.

Deputy Judge in the High Court of Justice

In 1990 Tyrell was appointed assistant judge on the High Court of Justice , the highest civil court for England and Wales. In this role he dealt, among other things, with the public investigation carried out in 1990 into the construction plans for the A 14, which was to be led through the site of the Battle of Naseby from the English Civil War . However, the objections were rejected by the government inspection, so construction plans continued.

In another civil case, he ruled that a man who sustained brain damage as a baby during surgery 30 years ago could not sue the hospital. However, this decision was overturned as "plainly wrong" in an appeal before the Court of Appeal in 1994.

He has also served several times as Chairman of the National Association of Self-Employed in the London Area, Commissioner General for Income Taxes, Arbitrator for the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris , Director of the Foundation of Papworth Hospital, a heart and lung clinic operated by the National Health Service (NHS) in Papworth Everard , as well as a member of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board .

His marriage to Elaine Ware in 1960 resulted in a son and daughter.

Publications

• The Legal Professions in the New Europe , 1992

Web links

• Entry on Alan Tyrrell in the European Parliament 's database of MEPs
• Alan Tyrrell - obituary. Alan Tyrrell was a QC who defended the 'Beast of Islington' and employed his persuasive skills in the European Parliament . In: The Daily Telegraph, December 1, 2014