Sir Nigel Hamilton Sweeney KC (born 18 March 1954), styled The Hon. Mr Justice Sweeney, is a High Court judge.

Biography

Sweeney studied law at the University of Nottingham under Sir John Cyril Smith. 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 ...

in 1976 at the Middle Temple, where he was made a bencher in 1997, that same year he was appointed First Senior Prosecuting Counsel to the Crown, and was appointed Queen's Counsel in 2000. He was appointed to the High Court (

Queen's Bench The King's Bench (), or, during the reign of a female monarch, the Queen's Bench ('), refers to several contemporary and historical courts in some Commonwealth jurisdictions. * Court of King's Bench (England), a historic court court of common ...

) in September 2008. Prior to being appointed a High Court judge, Sweeney was a

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

in the United Kingdom, practising from 6 King's Bench Walk and specialising in terrorism, official secrets, murder and major health and safety trials. He prosecuted a number of notable criminal trials, including the perpetrators of the 1984 IRA Brighton bombing and the attempted bombings of 21 July 2005, Neo-Nazi terrorist David Copeland and murderers Michael Stone and

Kamel Bourgass Kamel ( ar, كامل }) is a given name meaning ''perfect'' or ''the perfect one''. It may refer to: People with the given name Kamel * Abdullah Kamel Abdullah Kamel Al Kandari (born 1973), Kuwaiti extrajudicial prisoner of the United States * ...

. Sweeney was appointed Presiding Judge of the South Eastern CIrcuit in 2012, and the Judge in Charge of the Terrorism List in 2013. He is also the Judge responsible for European Liaison in relation to criminal law issues, and is a member of the Judges’ Council. He presided over the trial in February and March 2013 of former Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change

Chris Huhne Christopher Murray Paul-Huhne (born 2 July 1954), known as Chris Huhne, is a British energy and climate change consultant and former journalist and politician who was the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Eastleigh from 2005 to 2013 an ...

MP and his former wife,

Vicky Pryce Vasiliki "Vicky" Pryce (' Kourmouzi ( el, Βασιλική Κουρμούζη); born 15 July 1952) is a Greek-born British economist and a former Joint Head of the United Kingdom's Government Economic Service. She is currently the Chief Economi ...

, for perverting the course of justice contrary to common law. He sentenced another MP Denis MacShane for fraud in the aftermath of the 2009 parliamentary expenses scandal. He has presided over and was sentencing judge in high-profile cases involving terrorists and extremists, such as the two men responsible for the murder of Lee Rigby in 2013, the man convicted of the murder of MP David Amess and White supremacist bomber Pavlo Lapshyn He has also been involved in numerous other high profile cases. He was the presiding judge in the trial of Rolf Harris for various counts of indecent assault dating back to the 1960s. He was the sentencing judge for the

murder of Sabina Nessa On the evening of 17 September 2021, 28-year-old Sabina Nessa was murder in English law, murdered in south east London, United Kingdom. Her body was found the following day in Cator Park, Greenwich, having been beaten and strangled. Koci Selamaj ...

, sentencing Koci Selemaj to a minimum of 36 years in prison. He was also the presiding judge in the Essex lorry deaths trials where 39 Vietnamese people were killed in the back of a lorry; four perpetrators received a combined 92 years in prison. Sweeney is also an Associate Professor at the School of Law at Nottingham University.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sweeney, Nigel Living people 1954 births People educated at Wellington School, Somerset Alumni of the University of Nottingham British barristers Members of the Middle Temple 21st-century King's Counsel Queen's Bench Division judges Knights Bachelor Place of birth missing (living people)

Biography

See also

References