John Passmore Widgery

John Passmore Widgery, Baron Widgery OBE , QC , PC (born July 24, 1911 in Devonshire - † July 26, 1981 ) was a British judge and from 1972 to 1980 Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales . As chairman of the Widgery Tribunal , he led the first investigation into the processes and events of " Bloody Sunday " ( Bloody Sunday ) in Northern Ireland in 1972, which brought him a high profile.

Early career and military service

Widgery comes from a family that for many generations in South Molton in the north of the county Devon was home. One of his ancestors was a prison guard and his mother served as a magistrate . He attended Queen's College in Taunton , where he became the student representative.

After being a solicitor , he was admitted to the bar in 1933, but instead of working as such, he was hired by the well-known company Gibson and Welldon, which specialized in legal training. He was an efficient teacher there in the years up to World War II, while he was an officer in the Territorial Army on the side. This task led him to the regular British Army, with which he participated in the Normandy landing. At the end of the war he had the rank of lieutenant colonel in the regular army and that of brigadier in the Territorial Army , he was holder of the Order of the British Empire , the French Croix de Guerre and the Belgian Leopold Order .

barrister

After demobilization, Widgery was appointed to the Lincoln's Inn bar in 1946 . He eventually specialized in tax law and urban planning issues . In 1958 he was the first post-war barrister to be appointed crown attorney .

Widgery was a judge in the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of England and Wales in 1961 . Widgery conducted various investigations during his tenure.

Appeals court

He had only just been promoted to the Court of Appeal in 1968 when Lord Parker of Waddington (who had been Lord Chief Justice since 1958 ) announced his resignation. There was no clear successor and Widgery was the youngest of the possible contenders. Lord Chancellor Lord Hailsham eventually chose Widgery because of his administrative skills. On April 20, 1971, he was raised to the nobility for life as Baron Widgery , of South Molton in the County of Devon .

Widgery Tribunal

Shortly after taking office, he had to deal with the politically sensitive investigation of the " Bloody Sunday " of January 30, 1972 in Derry , Northern Ireland , where 13 unarmed demonstrators had been shot by British paratroopers as head of a committee of inquiry . Widgery was confronted with testimony from soldiers who claimed they were shot first, while protesters insisted that no one on their platoon was armed. Widgery hastily issued a report advocating the army's point of view; however, the main criticism was that most of the dead protesters had been hit in the back. The report was immediately rejected by the Northern Irish side and viewed as evidence of the partiality of the British judiciary. This allegation was confirmed when, after more than 12 years of investigation, a new report found in 2010 that, contrary to the claims in the Widgery report, all Irish victims were unarmed and in no danger to the soldiers, while the statements made by the British were Soldiers acted to deliberate lies and deceit.

Lord Chief Justice

Widgery found himself involved in the Crossman Diaries case when the government tried to ban the publication of these books for reasons of secrecy. During the trial, he made it clear that, in his opinion , Richard Crossman had “broken the rules”, but in the end refused an injunction against the publication. In criminal cases, Widgery has been increasingly affected by cases based on thin evidence. In 1974 he declared that bad evidence is "the most dangerous crack in our armor when we claim that British justice is the best in the world" .

His later years in office were disrupted by constant illness and decline in health and mentality. Nevertheless, until the last moment in 1980, he did not allow himself to be persuaded to step down from his position. In the 18 months before that, however, he was barely able to do his administrative work or to express himself legally. It was slowly becoming apparent that he suffered from dementia .