Sir Brian Henry Leveson[1] QC (pronounced /ˈlɛvɨsən/;[2] born 22 June 1949), previously styled as the Honourable Mr Justice Leveson, now styled as the Right Honourable Lord Justice Leveson,[3] is an English Judge, a Lord Justice of Appeal for England and Wales and, since 2010, head of the Sentencing Council for England and Wales.[4]
It was announced on 13 July 2011 that Lord Justice Leveson would lead the Leveson Inquiry, a public inquiry into the regulation of the media prompted by the News of the World phone hacking affair.[5][6]
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Born in Liverpool, Leveson was educated at Liverpool College, before going up to Merton College, Oxford.[7]
Leveson was called to the Bar at Middle Temple in 1970. He initially practised in Liverpool and took silk in 1986.[4] Leveson became a Bencher in 1995,[4] acted as a Recorder between 1988 and 2000, and as a Deputy High Court Judge between 1998 and 2000.[4] In 2000, Leveson was appointed as a Judge of the High Court, Queen's Bench Division, and served as a Presiding Judge of the Northern Circuit between 2002–2005.[4]
While sitting with Lord Justice Mantell[8] in the Court of Appeal in 2002 under the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, he upheld the murder conviction of James Hanratty.[9] He also presided over the trial of ex-US Marine Toby Studebaker for charges relating to child grooming over the internet.[10] He refused to imprison 100-year-old Bernard Heginbotham, who was found guilty of euthanasia on his wife of 67 years, 87-year-old Ida, because she faced spending the remainder of her life in the dementia ward of a nursing home.[11] He also presided over the trial of Michael Barton, who was found guilty in 2005 of murdering Anthony Walker with an axe.[6]
In 2005, Leveson was appointed to the new position of Deputy Senior Presiding Judge and, in October 2006, he was made a Lord Justice of Appeal.[4] In November 2007, while sitting under the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, Lord Phillips and alongside Mr Justice Simon in the Court of Appeal, the three quashed the conviction of Barry George and ordered a retrial in relation to the murder in 2001 of BBC presenter Jill Dando.[12] He was also appointed a Privy Counsellor in 2006.
It was announced on 13 July 2011 that Leveson would lead the public inquiry into issues of media regulation raised by the News International phone hacking scandal.[5] On 20 July, Prime Minister David Cameron announced that the scope of the inquiry had widened to include the BBC and social media.[13][14]
It was subsequently reported in the media that Leveson had attended two parties in the prior 12 months at the London home of Matthew Freud, a PR executive married to Elisabeth Murdoch, the daughter of Rupert Murdoch.[15][16] These revelations led to a number of Labour MPs calling for Leveson to be removed from the Inquiry.[17][18] These were two large evening events attended in Leveson's capacity as Chairman of the Sentencing Council, and with the knowledge of the Lord Chief Justice.[19] The context of these events is fully described in Leveson's declaration on the inquiry website.[20]
Leveson and his wife Lynne, who is also from Liverpool, are devout Jews.[21][22] The couple have three children and live in London.[23]
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