Major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

Sir Thomas Chalmers Hetherington, (18 September 1926 – 28 March 2007), better known as Sir Tony Hetherington, was a British

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 ...

. He was

Director of Public Prosecutions The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is the office or official charged with the prosecution of criminal offences in several criminal jurisdictions around the world. The title is used mainly in jurisdictions that are or have been members o ...

of England and Wales from 1977 to 1987, and was the first head of the Crown Prosecution Service for the year after it was founded in 1986.

Early life

Hetherington was born on 18 September 1926 in Dumfriesshire, Scotland. His father was a doctor. He was educated at Rugby School. He read law at

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...

, graduating in 1951, and 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 1952 at the Inner Temple.

Career

Military career

On 5 January 1947, he was granted an emergency commission into the Royal Regiment of Artillery, British Army, as a

second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

. He was promoted to lieutenant on 11 May 1948. He saw active service in the Middle East in the aftermath of World War II. He continued to serve in the Territorial Army until 1967, rising to the rank of

major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

. Battery Commander of P (7th London) Battery 254 City of London Regiment Royal Artillery (TA)

Legal career

He joined the government legal service, in the legal department of the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance. He became part of the legal team supporting the Attorney-General and the Solicitor General in 1962. He was head of the permanent legal staff of the Law Officers from 1966 to 1976. He was appointed CBE in 1970, and became Deputy Treasury Solicitor in 1975. The Home Secretary Merlyn Rees appointed him Director of Public Prosecutions on the retirement of Sir Norman Skelhorn in 1977, with a brief to reduce delays in the criminal legal system. Soon after taking office, he took the decision to prosecute Jeremy Thorpe, who was acquitted of plotting the murder of his former homosexual lover. Hetherington became a QC and a bencher of Inner Temple in 1978, and he was appointed KCB in 1979. In 2017, the enquiry into child abuse was told that Hetherington had untruthfully told two newspapers that his office had never received police reports of abuse by the Liberal MP,

Sir Cyril Smith Sir Cyril Richard Smith (28 June 1928 – 3 September 2010) was a prominent British politician who after his death was revealed to have been a prolific serial sex offender against children. A member of the Liberal Party, he was Member of ...

.BBC News Site
/ref> The later years of his service were dominated by wide-ranging changes to the criminal legal system in the UK. A perceived miscarriage of justice after the murder of male prostitute

Maxwell Confait Maxwell may refer to: People * Maxwell (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name ** James Clerk Maxwell, mathematician and physicist * Justice Maxwell (disambiguation) * Maxwell baronets, in the Baronetage of ...

, and a subsequent critical report by the retired High Court judge Sir Henry Fisher in 1977, led to a Royal Commission on Criminal Procedure chaired by Sir Cyril Philips, which reported in 1981. The Royal Commission recommended changes to the investigation and prosecution of criminal offences, and that the decision to prosecute should be taken out of the hands of the police and given to an independent body in charge of Crown prosecutions. The government accepted the report. After consultation, the

Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) (1984 c. 60) is an Act of Parliament which instituted a legislative framework for the powers of police officers in England and Wales to combat crime, and provided codes of practice for the exercise ...

(PACE) was enacted to formalise the existing

Judges Rules The Judges' Rules are a set of guidelines about police and questioning and the acceptability of the resulting statements and confessions as evidence in court. Originally prepared for police in England, the Rules and their successor documents ha ...

, and the Crown Prosecution Service was created in 1986 under the terms of the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985, with Hetherington as its first head until he retired in 1987.

Later life

In 1989, shortly after his retirement, he co-wrote the Hetherington-Chalmers Report with former Scottish Crown agent William Chalmers, which examined ways to prosecute suspected war criminals living in Britain for "crimes of murder, manslaughter or genocide committed in Germany and in territories occupied by German forces during the Second World War," over which British courts did not then have jurisdiction. The report followed a 15-month inquiry in which allegations against 301 suspects were investigated. The report's recommendations led two years later to the War Crimes Act 1991, which was passed over objections of the House of Lords using the

Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 The Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 are two Act of Parliament, Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which form part of the constitution of the United Kingdom. Section 2(2) of the Parliament Act 1949 provides that the two Acts are to be St ...

. He suffered from a degenerative neurological illness in later life. He was survived by his wife, the former June Catliff, whom he married in 1953, and their four daughters.

Early life

Career

Military career

Legal career

Later life

References

External links