Sir Colman Maurice Treacy (born 28 July 1949) is a retired Lord Justice of Appeal. Previously, he was a barrister in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

. He presided over a number of criminal trials, including those of an Afghan

warlord A warlord is a person who exercises military, economic, and political control over a region in a country without a strong national government; largely because of coercive control over the armed forces. Warlords have existed throughout much of h ...

Faryadi Sarwar Zardad Faryadi Sarwar Zardad (also known as Zardad Khan and Commander Zardad) is an Afghan former warlord. In 2005 he was convicted in the United Kingdom (where he was living), for conspiring to take hostages and conspiring to torture during the 1990s in ...

, and two of the killers of

Stephen Lawrence Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; ...

Early life

Treacy attended Stonyhurst College, a Jesuit private boarding school in the

Ribble Valley Ribble Valley is a local government district with borough status within the non-metropolitan county of Lancashire, England. The total population of the non-metropolitan district at the 2011 Census was 57,132. Its council is based in Clitheroe. ...

, Lancashire, and studied Classics on an Open Scholarship at Jesus College,

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

. He was called to the Bar at the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn ...

in 1971, and appointed

Queen's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of a queen, is a lawyer (usually a barrister o ...

(QC) in 1990.

Career

Treacy practised mainly in criminal law in the criminal courts of

. In 2002, he prosecuted two suspected Islamic terrorists accused of plotting to cause terrorist explosions in the UK, before Mr Justice Hughes. One of the accused, Moinul Abedin, was convicted and sentenced to 20 years, while the other was acquitted. He was appointed Assistant Recorder in 1988 and Recorder in 1991, a post he retained until his appointment to the High Court on 1 October 2002, whereupon he received 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 ...

. From 2006 to 2010, he was a Presiding Judge of the Midland Circuit. He was chairman of the Sentencing Council for England and Wales. On 1 October 2012, he was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal, and he was appointed to the Privy Council on 7 November 2012.

Crown Court cases

Treacy presided over a number of criminal trials. In 2005, he presided at the trial of

, an Afghan

charged under the principle of

universal jurisdiction Universal jurisdiction is a legal principle that allows states or international organizations to claim criminal jurisdiction over an accused person regardless of where the alleged crime was committed, and regardless of the accused's nationality, ...

with conspiracy to torture and conspiracy to take hostages during the 1990s in Afghanistan. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison and recommended to be deported. On sentencing notorious

Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...

gang boss Colin Gunn to 35 years for conspiracy to murder the parents of a gangland rival, Gunn told Treacy to "die of AIDS". In 2010, he was the judge at the first major English criminal trial in more than 400 years to be heard without a jury. The decision by the Court of Appeal to allow the trial without a jury came after the third attempt at a trial fell apart due to attempts at

jury tampering Jury tampering is the crime of unduly attempting to influence the composition and/or decisions of a jury during the course of a trial. The means by which this crime could be perpetrated can include attempting to discredit potential jurors to ensur ...

. The decision was criticised by

Shami Chakrabarti Sharmishta "Shami" Chakrabarti, Baroness Chakrabarti, (born 16 June 1969) is a British politician, barrister, and human rights activist. A member of the Labour Party, she served as the director of Liberty, a major advocacy group which promote ...

, of

Liberty Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...

. The case concerned the £1.7 million robbery of the Menzies World Cargo warehouse at Heathrow airport in February 2004, of which all four of the accused were convicted. The trial reportedly cost £25,000,000. In December 2011, Treacy presided over the trial of Gary Dobson and David Norris for the racially aggravated

murder of Stephen Lawrence Stephen Lawrence (13 September 1974 – 22 April 1993) was a black British teenager from Plumstead, southeast London, who was murdered in a racially motivated attack while waiting for a bus in Well Hall Road, Eltham on the evening of 22 Apri ...

. Lawrence had been murdered while waiting at a bus stop in

Eltham Eltham ( ) is a district of southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It is east-southeast of Charing Cross, and is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. The three wards of E ...

, South London, in April 1993, by a gang of white youths chanting racist slogans. Five men had been arrested and two were charged but the prosecution was dropped by the

Crown Prosecution Service The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is the principal public agency for conducting criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. It is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions. The main responsibilities of the CPS are to provide legal advi ...

due to lack of evidence. A

private prosecution A private prosecution is a criminal proceeding initiated by an individual private citizen or private organisation (such as a prosecution association) instead of by a public prosecutor who represents the state. Private prosecutions are allowed in ma ...

by the Lawrence family in 1994 of three of the suspects resulted in their acquittal due to unreliability of the identification evidence. The 1999 Macpherson Review of the case found shortcomings in the original police investigation and concluded the Metropolitan Police Force was rife with "

institutional racism Institutional racism, also known as systemic racism, is a form of racism that is embedded in the laws and regulations of a society or an organization. It manifests as discrimination in areas such as criminal justice, employment, housing, health ...

" and recommended a reduction in

double jeopardy In jurisprudence, double jeopardy is a procedural defence (primarily in common law jurisdictions) that prevents an accused person from being tried again on the same (or similar) charges following an acquittal or conviction and in rare case ...

, the rule preventing someone being tried for the same crime twice, to allow for cases where "fresh and viable" new evidence became available to be retried. This proposal was supported by the

Law Commission A law commission, law reform commission, or law revision commission is an independent body set up by a government to conduct law reform; that is, to consider the state of laws in a jurisdiction and make recommendations or proposals for legal chang ...

in 2001 and given effect by Parliament in the

Criminal Justice Act 2003 The Criminal Justice Act 2003 (c. 44) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is a wide-ranging measure introduced to modernise many areas of the criminal justice system in England and Wales and, to a lesser extent, in Scotland a ...

. In 2011, eighteen years after the incident, a

cold case A cold case is a crime, or a suspected crime, that has not yet been fully resolved and is not the subject of a current criminal investigation, but for which new information could emerge from new witness testimony, re-examined archives, new or r ...

review found new DNA evidence using techniques not available at the time of the original investigation. Dobson and Norris were prosecuted in December that year and convicted on 3 January 2012, being ordered to be detained at

Her Majesty's pleasure At His Majesty's pleasure (sometimes abbreviated to King's pleasure or, when the reigning monarch is female, at Her Majesty's pleasure or Queen's pleasure) is a legal term of art referring to the indeterminate or undetermined length of service of c ...

with minimum terms of fifteen years and two months, and fourteen years and three months, respectively.

References

External links

Muriel Southall and Michael Whitcombe trialBirmingham Law Society website downloads''The Guardian'' article referencing Mr Justice Treacy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Treacy, Colman 1949 births Living people Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge British people of Irish descent English King's Counsel British Roman Catholics Knights Bachelor Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom People educated at Stonyhurst College People from Birmingham, West Midlands Queen's Bench Division judges 20th-century King's Counsel Lords Justices of Appeal