Sir Daniel James Brabin
MC (14 August 1913 – 22 September 1975) was a
judge of the High Court of England from 1962 until his death.
Biography
Son of William Henry Brabin, and educated at the
Douai School
Douai School was a public (independent) school run by the Douai Abbey Benedictine community at Woolhampton, England, until it closed in 1999.
History
1615–1818
The monastic community was founded in Paris in 1615 and moved to Douai af ...
and
Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Trinity Hall (formally The College or Hall of the Holy Trinity in the University of Cambridge) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.
It is the fifth-oldest surviving college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by ...
, he was a pupil of
Lord Shawcross, and was
called to the Bar from the
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 ...
in 1936, being appointed
King's Counsel in 1951 and 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 ca ...
of the Inner Temple in 1960. Brabin served with the
Royal Artillery
The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...
during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, receiving a commission to
second lieutenant from
gunner on 11 May 1940, and was awarded the
Military Cross
The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries.
The MC ...
in 1945. He was knighted in 1962.
Notable cases
Timothy Evans murder case
He was appointed by
Home Secretary
The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national s ...
Frank Soskice
Frank Soskice, Baron Stow Hill, (23 July 1902 – 1 January 1979) was a British lawyer and Labour Party politician.
Background and education
Soskice's father, was from a family of Russian Jewish merchants. David Soskice became involved in ...
to conduct the inquiry into the
Timothy Evans
Timothy John Evans (20 November 1924 – 9 March 1950) was a Welshman who was wrongly accused of murdering his wife (Beryl) and infant daughter (Geraldine) at their residence in Notting Hill, London. In January 1950, Evans was tried, and was c ...
/
John Christie murder
miscarriage of justice
A miscarriage of justice occurs when a grossly unfair outcome occurs in a criminal or civil proceeding, such as the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime they did not commit. Miscarriages are also known as wrongful convictions. Inno ...
case, which was conducted over the winter of 1965–66. Timothy Evans had been hanged in 1950 for the murder of his small child, Geraldine, after a trial in which his then neighbour in the same building, John Christie, testified against him. Three years later Christie was found guilty of multiple murder of women in his house, 10 Rillington Place, and he himself was tried for murder, found guilty and hanged. Before he died, he admitted to killing Beryl, the wife of Timothy Evans and mother of Geraldine, and so it was likely that Evans had been innocent, and had been hanged wrongfully.
Brabin found it was "more probable than not" that Evans murdered his wife and that he did not murder his daughter. This was contrary to the prosecution case in Evans's trial, which held that both murders had been committed by the same person as a single transaction. The victims' bodies had been found together in the same location and had been murdered in the same way by
strangulation
Strangling is compression of the neck that may lead to unconsciousness or death by causing an increasingly hypoxic state in the brain. Fatal strangling typically occurs in cases of violence, accidents, and is one of two main ways that hangin ...
. Despite his perverse conclusion, the Brabin enquiry exposed police malpractice during the Evans case, such as destruction of evidence. The neck tie which had been used to strangle Geraldine, for example, was destroyed by the police prior to the discovery of Christie's crimes in 1953. Even the record book in which the destruction had to be noted, was itself destroyed by the police. In most serious cases, police are required to preserve all material and documentary evidence, so the removal of evidence in this case is suspicious. Many police statements were contradictory and confused as to dates and times of interviews with key witnesses, especially of Christie and his wife during the first murder case. Brabin went to great lengths to prefer police evidence wherever possible, and exonerate them of any
police misconduct
Police misconduct refers to inappropriate conduct and illegal actions taken by police officers in connection with their official duties. Types of misconduct include among others: coerced false confession, intimidation, false arrest, false impri ...
(such as threats of violence against Evans during his interrogation), and he failed to address the allegations made by
Ludovic Kennedy
Sir Ludovic Henry Coverley Kennedy (3 November 191918 October 2009) was a Scottish journalist, broadcaster, humanist and author best known for re-examining cases such as the Lindbergh kidnapping and the murder convictions of Timothy Evans an ...
about the validity of several of the confessions allegedly made by Evans. He never considered the incompetence of the police in their searches of the garden at 10 Rillington Place, and had a poor understanding of the importance of
forensic
Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and criminal p ...
evidence. The enquiry did little to settle the many issues which arose from the case, but, by exonerating Evans of killing his child, was crucial in subsequent events.
Since Evans had only been convicted of the murder of his daughter,
Roy Jenkins, Soskice's successor as
Home Secretary
The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national s ...
, recommended a royal pardon for Evans, which was granted in October 1966. In 1965 Evans' remains had been exhumed from
Pentonville Prison
HM Prison Pentonville (informally "The Ville") is an English Category B men's prison, operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. Pentonville Prison is not in Pentonville, but is located further north, on the Caledonian Road in the Barnsbury ar ...
and reburied in St Patrick's Roman Catholic Cemetery in Leytonstone, Greater London. The outcry over the Evans case contributed to the suspension and then
abolition of capital punishment in the United Kingdom.
R v Commissioner of Metropolitan Police, ex parte Blackburn
Brabin ruled in ''R v Commissioner of Metropolitan Police, ex parte
Blackburn
Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, east of Preston and north-n ...
'' on the duty of the Crown to prosecute. The case was described as follows: "A and B are alleged to have committed a crime. A is charged with the crime, convicted and sentenced. B is not charged. At the trial of A there is evidence which suggests that B may have committed or been a participant to the crime. Can the prosecution be compelled to prosecute B?" In 1968, the Court of Queen's Bench of
Widgery CJ,
Melford Stevenson
Sir Aubrey Melford Steed Stevenson (17 October 1902 – 26 December 1987), usually known as Sir Melford Stevenson, was an English barrister and, later, a High Court judge, whose judicial career was marked by his controversial conduct and ...
and Brabin issued judgment that "to prosecute must indisputably be a matter of discretion", and that "No minister of the Crown can tell (the Commissioner) that he must, or must not, keep observation on this place or that; or that he must, or must not, prosecute this man or that one. Nor can any police authority tell him so. The responsibility for law enforcement lies on him. He is answerable to the law and to the law alone."
In 1972, this judgment was affirmed by the
Court of Appeal, in a separate judgment against Blackburn on another matter. The original Blackburn case in 1968 dealt with Blackburn's allegations of an illegal London gambling establishment, whereas in Autumn 1972 he brought an action for
mandamus for failure to arrest on pornography laws, which was later decided in the Court of Appeal.
The case was noted as recently as the 1998 decision of the Lords
Regina v. Chief Constable of Sussex Ex Parte International Trader's Ferry Limited 1998 UKHL 40, concerning police protection for the customers of ITF, a company involved in the export of livestock through the port of
Shoreham, during the early months of 1995 when animal rights protesters were trying to stop the trade.
House of Lords Judgments: "Regina v. Chief Constable of Sussex Ex Parte International Trader's Ferry Limited" 1998 UKHL 40
/ref>
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brabin, Daniel, Sir
1913 births
1975 deaths
Queen's Bench Division judges
Recipients of the Military Cross
Knights Bachelor
People educated at Douai School
Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Members of the Inner Temple
Royal Artillery officers
English King's Counsel
British Army personnel of World War II