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Sir Brian Richard Keith (born 14 April 1944) is a former British judge of the
High Court of England and Wales The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Senior Courts of England and Wales. Its name is abbreviated as EWHC (England ...
styled as The Honourable Mr Justice Keith. He was previously a judge of the Court of Appeal of Hong Kong.


Education and early career

Keith is the son of
Alan Keith Alan Keith, OBE (born Alexander Kossoff; 19 October 1908 – 17 March 2003) was a British actor, disc jockey and radio presenter, noted for being the longest-serving and eldest presenter on British radio by the time of his death aged 94. Backg ...
, the broadcaster best known for devising and presenting the long-running programme ''
Your Hundred Best Tunes ''Your Hundred Best Tunes'' was a BBC radio music programme, always broadcast on Sunday evenings, which presented popular works which were mostly classical excerpts, choral works, opera and ballads. The hundred tunes which made up the playlist w ...
'' on
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
's Radio 2, who was of Russian-Jewish descent. He was educated at
University College School ("Slowly but surely") , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day school , religion = , president = , head_label = Headmaster , head = Mark Beard , r_head_label = , r_hea ...
,
Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...
, and read law at
Lincoln College, Oxford Lincoln College (formally, The College of the Blessed Mary and All Saints, Lincoln) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford, situated on Turl Street in central Oxford. Lincoln was founded in 1427 by Richard Fleming, the ...
. From 1966-67, he was a John F. Kennedy Fellow at
Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...
. He was
called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...
at
Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wal ...
in 1968 and elected a
bencher A bencher or Master of the Bench is a senior member of an Inn of Court in England and Wales or the Inns of Court in Northern Ireland, or the Honorable Society of King's Inns in Ireland. Benchers hold office for life once elected. A bencher can ...
in 1996. He was appointed an Assistant
Recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...
in 1988 and appointed a
Queen's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of ...
in 1989. He practised in employment and administrative law from the chambers of
Lord Irvine of Lairg Alexander Andrew Mackay Irvine, Baron Irvine of Lairg, (born 23 June 1940), known as Derry Irvine, is a Scottish lawyer, judge and political figure who served as Lord Chancellor under his former pupil barrister, Tony Blair. Education Irvine wa ...
QC, where a fellow member was
Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
.


Judicial career in Hong Kong

In 1991, Keith became a judge of the High Court of Hong Kong (which was renamed the
Court of First Instance A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance w ...
when Hong Kong's Supreme Court was renamed the High Court in 1997). In 1996 he became the first judge in charge of the High Court's new Constitutional and Administrative Law List in preparation for the resumption of sovereignty over Hong Kong by China in 1997. He was promoted to the Hong Kong Court of Appeal in 1999, serving until 2001. He was appointed a Recorder in 1993. From January to March 2023, Keith is sitting as a part-time Deputy Judge of the High Court of Hong Kong SAR Keith is given a Chinese name "祁彥輝" by the
Hong Kong Judiciary The Judiciary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is the judicial branch of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Under the Basic Law of Hong Kong, it exercises the judicial power of the Region and is independent of the exec ...
.


Judicial career in England and Wales

On 1 October 2001, Keith was appointed a judge of the
High Court of England and Wales The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Senior Courts of England and Wales. Its name is abbreviated as EWHC (England ...
, receiving the customary
knighthood A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...
, and assigned to the
Queen's Bench Division The King's Bench Division (or Queen's Bench Division when the monarch is female) of the High Court of Justice deals with a wide range of common law cases and has supervisory responsibility over certain lower courts. It hears appeals on point ...
. From 2004 to 2006, he was the chairman of the public inquiry into the racist murder of Zahid Mubarek, an Asian teenager, in his cell at Feltham Young Offenders Institution. He also presided over the litigation involving the
MMR vaccine The MMR vaccine is a vaccine against measles, mumps, and rubella (German measles), abbreviated as ''MMR''. The first dose is generally given to children around 9 months to 15 months of age, with a second dose at 15 months to 6 years of age, ...
, in which the parents of children allegedly damaged by the vaccine sued a number of pharmaceutical companies for product liability and negligence. Among the notable criminal trials he presided over were the case of Anthony Hardy, who became known as the Camden Ripper who strangled prostitutes and disposed of their body parts in dustbins in
Camden Town Camden Town (), often shortened to Camden, is a district of northwest London, England, north of Charing Cross. Historically in Middlesex, it is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Camden, and identified in the London Plan as o ...
. Keith subsequently ruled that he should never be released from prison. Keith was also the trial judge in the case of Maninder Kohli, the first Indian national to have been extradited to the UK from
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, and who was convicted of the kidnapping, rape and
murder of Hannah Foster Hannah Foster was a 17-year-old British student who was abducted after a night out in Southampton in mid-March 2003. Murdered by Indian immigrant Maninder Pal Singh Kohli, who had come to the UK in 1993, her body was found in nearby West End, t ...
but Keith sentenced Kohli only to life with a minimum of 24 years, leaving Kohli eligible for parole in 2030. Keith also presided over the trials of the two boys who had tortured two other youngsters and left them for dead ("the Edlington Two"), and of
Kweku Adoboli Kweku Adoboli (born 21 May 1980) is a Ghanaian investment manager and former stock trader. He was convicted of illegally trading away US$2 billion (£1.3 billion STG) as a trader for Swiss investment bank UBS. While at the bank he pr ...
, the
Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
-born trader at
UBS UBS Group AG is a multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company founded and based in Switzerland. Co-headquartered in the cities of Zürich and Basel, it maintains a presence in all major financial centres ...
who was convicted of two counts of fraud and sentenced to seven years imprisonment in a $2,000,000,000 (billion) fraud case.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Keith, Brian 1944 births Living people English people of Russian-Jewish descent People educated at University College School Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford Hong Kong judges Queen's Bench Division judges Knights Bachelor Kossoff family British Hong Kong judges