Dame Barbara Jean Lyon Mills, DBE, QC (née Warnock; 10 August 1940 – 28 May 2011) was a British barrister. She held various senior public appointments including Director of Public Prosecutions, and was widely seen as a pioneer for women gaining such appointments in the higher echelons of the legal profession.[1] At the time of her death she was Chair of the Professional Oversight Board.[1]
She was educated at St. Helen's School, Northwood, and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She was called to the Bar from the Middle Temple in 1963.
She had a successful career as a barrister specialising in criminal prosecution, including high profile cases such as securing convictions against the Guinness Four and the Brighton bomber Patrick Magee. She was then appointed Director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) from 1990 to 1992, and from 1992 to 1998 she was Director of Public Prosecutions, the first woman to hold that position. During that period, the SFO was investigating a company set up by her brother-in-law David Mills, then husband of Labour cabinet minister Tessa Jowell, in connection with bribery allegations against Silvio Berlusconi, but declined to investigate Mills himself.[2] David Mills was later found guilty of accepting a cash bribe from Berlusconi, but the conviction was quashed by Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation.[3][4]
As DPP she also served as the second head of the Crown Prosecution Service. During her term in this office, levels of bureaucracy in the CPS were high and morale was low.[5] She resigned when criticised by the High Court for repeatedly refusing to bring prosecutions over deaths in police custody.[6]
She was appointed as Adjudicator for Inland Revenue and for HM Customs and Excise on 26 April 1999, a part-time role independent of those departments, dealing with complaints from members of the public who are not satisfied with how the departments dealt with their complaints.[5][7] Mills retained the role as Adjudicator for HM Revenue and Customs when those bodies were merged in 2005, and held this post until 2009.[1]
She was married to John Mills from 1962 until her death.[5] He is a successful businessman and former leading Councillor at Camden.[2] She died on 28 May 2011 after suffering a stroke and is survived by her son and three daughters.[5]
| Legal offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Sir Allan Green |
Director of Public Prosecutions 1992–1998 |
Succeeded by David Calvert-Smith |