Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info. Tributes have been paid to a former Recorder of Hull and East Riding who died just months after his retirement.
He came out of retirement to serve as a judge last year. He was born in Harrogate on 10 September into an Army family. They married in and their son Richard was born in They have been steadfastly by his side ever since. Paul was unsurprisingly promoted to the rank of Major in He relished the opportunity later in his career at the Bar to represent soldiers at Courts Martial in Colchester and in Brunei.
Happily for the North Eastern Circuit, an Army Legal Corps colleague mentioned to him that he might be cut out for a career at the Bar. In due course, Campo Lane became Paradise Chambers. Paul took silk in , becoming the first Army Legal Services officer to do so, a fact of which he was justifiably proud. He became Head of Chambers. Paul always loved his legal life. Whilst that was undoubtedly true, it was not his love of the law nor the fact that he was a talented advocate that made everybody love him.
Paul was just a good bloke. To describe him as such is not in any way to diminish him, nor the very real impact he had on Bar and Bench alike. He was funny, approachable, inclusive and very human. On his retirement at Teesside he recalled listening to horrific details of murders, rapes and sex crimes hasn't left him cynical about human nature.
We don't send people to prison because we want to. We send them to prison because we have no alternative. I've seen wrecks of human beings. Given a chance - with drug rehabilitation support put in place - three, or four months later, they come back to court a different person.
