Liverpool Crown court judge slams ‘government interference’ in retirement speech

Feb 4 2009 by Sue McCann, Bromborough and Bebington News

CRITICISM of government interference in the judicial system was voiced on Friday by a Liverpool Crown Court judge in his retirement speech.

Judge Sean Duncan, a former president of the Council of Circuit Judges, said he was happy that there is good team on judges and barristers on the Northern Circuit but unhappy “at the increasing interference of government”.

He also spoke of the “freedoms and standards which many of our leaders seem to forget in our increasingly controlling society”.

And he queried what his predecessors, many of whom fought in the Second World War, would make of the proposal for inquests behind closed doors.

The 66-year-old judge, who lives in Wirral, practised at the Bar in Liverpool and was heavily involved in pushing for a fair fee system for barristers before his appointment to the bench in 1988.

A member of the Liverpool Ramblers, he is a former captain of the Royal Liverpool Golf Club.

His wife, Diana, a GP, was among those in the crowded courtroom for the farewell ceremony.