Norman Skelhorn
Encyclopedia
Sir Norman Skelhorn KBE
QC (1909 – 1988) was the Director of Public Prosecutions for England and Wales
from 1964 to 1977.. The son of a clergyman, he was educated at Shrewsbury School
. He was called to the Bar in 1931.
Like all DPPs before him, Sir Norman was a QC, who had defended amongst others Miss Noreen O'Connor, a state registered nurse
who it was claimed in 1954 had murdered her friend Miss Friederika Buls, in what became known as the Loxton Murder
.
Appointed DPP in 1964, in 1965, Sir Norman presented a paper to the Commonwealth and Empire Law Conference in Sydney
, Australia
titled "Crime and Punishment of Crime: Investigation of Offences and Trial of Accused Persons" in which he set out his agenda. These words came back to bite him when, in Rupasinghe v. Attorney General the defence counsel in this case about violation of the right to silence
, used the report in contrast to Sir Norman's 1972 role as a member of the eleventh Criminal Law Revision Committee.
One of the first cases Skelhorn dealt with, was the August 1966 seizure by Scotland Yard
's obscene publications squad of all copies of Aubrey Beardsley
's erotic cards and posters they could find in a card shop on Regent Street
. After Commissioner Sir Joseph Simpson
went to the Victoria and Albert Museum
to inspect the originals with pubic hair
on display there, the Home Secretary
Roy Jenkins
had to spend time dealing with the media, while Sir Norman was so deeply unimpressed by the seized drawings that he promptly ordered the police to take them back to the shop.
In 1972, Skelhorn gave bank robber
Bertie Smalls
, Britain's first true supergrass
, immunity from prosecution in light of the amounts and detail of his Queen's evidence. Although Smalls evidence and confession consequently convicted 21 associates for a total of 302 years, the Law Lords told Skelhorn that they found the arrangement with Smalls an "unholy deal."
Skelhorn became entangled in the row that erupted around the use of torture
in Northern Ireland
. Prime Minister
Edward Heath
had banned sensory deprivation
in light of the report by Sir Edmund Compton
into internment and interrogation techniques used by the British Army
and the Royal Ulster Constabulary
. In October 1973, being questioned at a meeting of the Harvard Law School
Forum, Sir Norman did not deny that torture had taken place, claiming that: "when dealing with "Irish terrorists" any methods were justified."
On 9 April 1976, the leader of the Young Liberals
Peter Hain
was cleared of robbery at a branch of Barclays Bank. In the House of Commons
that afternoon, six MPs led by Liberal David Steel
, called for the resignation of Sir Norman Skelhorn, over the Hain case.
Skelhorn retired from the post before the publication of the critical report by Lord Devlin
published in 1977 recommended statutory prosecution safeguards, on which the Government took no action.
Home Secretary
Merlyn Rees appointed Sir Thomas Hetherington
Director of Public Prosecutions on the retirement of Sir Norman, with a brief to reduce delays in the criminal legal system.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
QC (1909 – 1988) was the Director of Public Prosecutions for England and Wales
Director of Public Prosecutions (England and Wales)
The Director of Public Prosecutions of England and Wales is a senior prosecutor, appointed by the Attorney General. First created in 1879, the office was unified with that of the Treasury Solicitor less than a decade later before again becoming independent in 1908...
from 1964 to 1977.. The son of a clergyman, he was educated at Shrewsbury School
Shrewsbury School
Shrewsbury School is a co-educational independent school for pupils aged 13 to 18, founded by Royal Charter in 1552. The present campus to which the school moved in 1882 is located on the banks of the River Severn in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England...
. He was called to the Bar in 1931.
Like all DPPs before him, Sir Norman was a QC, who had defended amongst others Miss Noreen O'Connor, a state registered nurse
Registered nurse
A registered nurse is a nurse who has graduated from a nursing program at a university or college and has passed a national licensing exam. A registered nurse helps individuals, families, and groups to achieve health and prevent disease...
who it was claimed in 1954 had murdered her friend Miss Friederika Buls, in what became known as the Loxton Murder
Loxton, North Somerset
Loxton is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England. It is close to the M5 motorway in the Unitary Authority of North Somerset. The parish includes the village of Christon and has a population of 202.-History:...
.
Appointed DPP in 1964, in 1965, Sir Norman presented a paper to the Commonwealth and Empire Law Conference in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
titled "Crime and Punishment of Crime: Investigation of Offences and Trial of Accused Persons" in which he set out his agenda. These words came back to bite him when, in Rupasinghe v. Attorney General the defence counsel in this case about violation of the right to silence
Right to silence
The right to remain silent is a legal right of any person. This right is recognized, explicitly or by convention, in many of the world's legal systems....
, used the report in contrast to Sir Norman's 1972 role as a member of the eleventh Criminal Law Revision Committee.
One of the first cases Skelhorn dealt with, was the August 1966 seizure by Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
's obscene publications squad of all copies of Aubrey Beardsley
Aubrey Beardsley
Aubrey Vincent Beardsley was an English illustrator and author. His drawings, done in black ink and influenced by the style of Japanese woodcuts, emphasized the grotesque, the decadent, and the erotic. He was a leading figure in the Aesthetic movement which also included Oscar Wilde and James A....
's erotic cards and posters they could find in a card shop on Regent Street
Regent Street
Regent Street is one of the major shopping streets in London's West End, well known to tourists and Londoners alike, and famous for its Christmas illuminations...
. After Commissioner Sir Joseph Simpson
Joseph Simpson
Sir Joseph Simpson KBE KPFSM , commonly known as Joe Simpson to his men, was Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, the head of the London Metropolitan Police, from 1958 to 1968...
went to the Victoria and Albert Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
to inspect the originals with pubic hair
Pubic hair
Pubic hair is hair in the frontal genital area, the crotch, and sometimes at the top of the inside of the legs; these areas form the pubic region....
on display there, the Home Secretary
Home Secretary
The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
Roy Jenkins
Roy Jenkins
Roy Harris Jenkins, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead OM, PC was a British politician.The son of a Welsh coal miner who later became a union official and Labour MP, Roy Jenkins served with distinction in World War II. Elected to Parliament as a Labour member in 1948, he served in several major posts in...
had to spend time dealing with the media, while Sir Norman was so deeply unimpressed by the seized drawings that he promptly ordered the police to take them back to the shop.
In 1972, Skelhorn gave bank robber
Bank robbery
Bank robbery is the crime of stealing from a bank during opening hours. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, robbery is "the taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of...
Bertie Smalls
Bertie Smalls
Derek Creighton "Bertie" Smalls is considered by many as Britain's first supergrass. Although there have been informers throughout history - the Kray twins were partly convicted two years before Smalls on evidence given by Leslie Payne - the Smalls case was significant for three reasons: the...
, Britain's first true supergrass
Supergrass (informer)
Supergrass is a slang term for an informer, which originated in London. Informers had been referred to as "grasses" since the late-1930s, and the "super" prefix was coined by journalists in the early 1970s to describe those informers from the city's underworld who testified against former...
, immunity from prosecution in light of the amounts and detail of his Queen's evidence. Although Smalls evidence and confession consequently convicted 21 associates for a total of 302 years, the Law Lords told Skelhorn that they found the arrangement with Smalls an "unholy deal."
Skelhorn became entangled in the row that erupted around the use of torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
. Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
Edward Heath
Edward Heath
Sir Edward Richard George "Ted" Heath, KG, MBE, PC was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and as Leader of the Conservative Party ....
had banned sensory deprivation
Sensory deprivation
Sensory deprivation or perceptual isolation is the deliberate reduction or removal of stimuli from one or more of the senses. Simple devices such as blindfolds or hoods and earmuffs can cut off sight and hearing respectively, while more complex devices can also cut off the sense of smell, touch,...
in light of the report by Sir Edmund Compton
Edmund Compton
Sir Edmund Gerald Compton CB KCB GCB KBE was a civil servant and the first Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration.-Early life:...
into internment and interrogation techniques used by the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
and the Royal Ulster Constabulary
Royal Ulster Constabulary
The Royal Ulster Constabulary was the name of the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2000. Following the awarding of the George Cross in 2000, it was subsequently known as the Royal Ulster Constabulary GC. It was founded on 1 June 1922 out of the Royal Irish Constabulary...
. In October 1973, being questioned at a meeting of the Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
Forum, Sir Norman did not deny that torture had taken place, claiming that: "when dealing with "Irish terrorists" any methods were justified."
On 9 April 1976, the leader of the Young Liberals
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
Peter Hain
Peter Hain
Peter Gerald Hain is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for the Welsh constituency of Neath since 1991, and has served in the Cabinets of both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, firstly as Leader of the House of Commons under Blair and both Secretary of State for...
was cleared of robbery at a branch of Barclays Bank. In the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
that afternoon, six MPs led by Liberal David Steel
David Steel
David Martin Scott Steel, Baron Steel of Aikwood, KT, KBE, PC is a British Liberal Democrat politician who served as the Leader of the Liberal Party from 1976 until its merger with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the Liberal Democrats...
, called for the resignation of Sir Norman Skelhorn, over the Hain case.
Skelhorn retired from the post before the publication of the critical report by Lord Devlin
Patrick Devlin, Baron Devlin
Patrick Arthur Devlin, Baron Devlin, PC was a British lawyer, judge and jurist. He wrote a report on Britain's involvement in Nyasaland in 1959...
published in 1977 recommended statutory prosecution safeguards, on which the Government took no action.
Home Secretary
Home Secretary
The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
Merlyn Rees appointed Sir Thomas Hetherington
Thomas Hetherington
Major Sir Thomas Chalmers Hetherington, KCB, CBE, QC, TD , better known as Sir Tony Hetherington, was a British barrister. He was Director of Public Prosecutions 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...
Director of Public Prosecutions on the retirement of Sir Norman, with a brief to reduce delays in the criminal legal system.