John Alexander Creaney, QC, TA,

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

, DL (29 July 1933 – 3 June 2008) was a Northern Ireland QC, later named Senior Prosecuting Counsel at Belfast Crown Court, beginning in 1978. Creaney was born in

Armagh City Armagh City was a United Kingdom Parliament constituency in Ireland. Boundaries This constituency was the parliamentary borough of Armagh in County Armagh. It was the successor constituency to the Armagh City constituency of the Parliament of I ...

, County Armagh to a World War II veteran father who worked as a bus driver. Creaney attended the Royal School, Armagh and Queen's University, Belfast (QUB). He followed in his father's footsteps by joining the Territorial Army's Officer Training Corps (OTC). Creaney helped raise the

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5th Battalion for NATO service, keeping the soldiers for the most part out of The Troubles, although Creaney himself was intimidated from his home in

South Belfast Belfast South can refer to: *The southern part of Belfast * Belfast South (Assembly constituency) *Belfast South (Northern Ireland Parliament constituency) Belfast South was a borough constituency of the Parliament of Northern Ireland from 192 ...

due to threats from both republican and loyalist paramilitaries, beginning in the 1970s.

Legal career

Creaney was a pupil of Basil Kelly and began his legal career in 1957, after being called to the Bar. In 1968, he was appointed Junior Crown Counsel for County Antrim, and was named a QC five years later, taking silk in 1973. In the latter part of his career, Creaney became the resident Senior Prosecuting Counsel appearing for the Crown instructed by the NI DPP (now PPS) in trials held at Crumlin road Courthouse, Belfast. Creaney was very successful, rarely losing a case and was highly respected by both prosecution and defence.

Cases

Creaney oversaw or worked on numerous notable trials/prosecutions, including the following: * 1966: Malvern Street killings * 1991: Danny Morrison (Irish republican) * 1992: Brian Nelson (Northern Irish loyalist) * 1996 John Torney - Policeman accused of murder of his wife, son and daughter. Torney's case was that his son had committed the murders then killed himself. Torney died in prison after conviction and the loss of an appeal to the Belfast High Court, still protesting his innocence. * 2005:

Abbas Boutrab The following details notable events from the year 2005 in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is a country of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. Northern Ireland shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the ...

case, Northern Ireland's first al-Qa'eda-related trial *

Deputy Lieutenancy

He later served as a Deputy Lieutenant of

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

Personal life/death

In 1957, he married Evelyn McCormack; the couple had three daughters. Creaney died at his home in Cultra in 2008, aged 74, from leukaemia.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Creaney, John 1933 births 2008 deaths People from Armagh (city) 20th-century King's Counsel 21st-century King's Counsel Officers of the Order of the British Empire Deaths from cancer in Northern Ireland Deaths from leukemia in the United Kingdom Deputy lieutenants of Down Alumni of Queen's University Belfast Lawyers from County Armagh 20th-century British Army personnel Royal Irish Rangers officers Military personnel from Armagh (city)