Sir Aubrey Melford Steed Stevenson PC (17 October 1902 – 26 December 1987) was a British lawyer and High Court judge who served in many high-profile cases. He defended Ruth Ellis and prosecuted suspected serial killer John Bodkin Adams, both unsuccessfully.
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Stevenson was educated at Dulwich College.[1] He became a barrister in 1925.[2] From 1940–1945 he served as a Deputy Judge Advocate with the rank of major.[1] He was appointed King's Counsel in 1943.[3] In 1945 he served at the Nuremberg trials as Judge Advocate at the "Peleus Affair" trial. Heinz-Wilhelm Eck and two other officers of the German submarine U852 were sentenced to death by firing squad.[4] A year later in 1946, back in Britain, he sentenced Theodore Schurch to hang for spying.[5] He unsuccessfully stood as the Conservative Party candidate in the United Kingdom general election, 1945, for the Maldon division.[1]
In 1952 Stevenson was appointed Recorder of Cambridge (a part time judge).[6] In 1954 he represented the British Government in Kenya during Jomo Kenyatta's unsuccessful appeal against his conviction for involvement in Mau Mau activities.[2]
In 1955, aided by junior counsel Sebag Shaw and Peter Rawlinson, he defended Ruth Ellis. His conduct of the defence has been severely criticised by writer Monica Weller[7] for giving the "prosecution an easy time, subjecting prosecution witnesses to a minimum of cross-examination".[8] He opened by saying: "Let me make this abundantly plain: there is no question here but this woman shot this man [...] You will not hear one word from me – or from the lady herself – questioning that."[8] The jury took 23 minutes to find Ellis guilty.[8] She was hanged.
Stevenson was Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller's number 2 during the failed prosecution of suspected serial killer John Bodkin Adams in 1957. The prosecution's conduct has been heavily criticised,[9][10] and its decision to drop a second murder charge via a nolle prosequi was later deemed by the presiding judge, Patrick Devlin, "an abuse of process".[11] It has been said that the prosecution might have had a better chance of success if Stevenson had been allowed to lead.[1] Later, talking to journalist Rodney Hallworth, Stevenson said in regards to Adams' decision not to give evidence in court: "I firmly believe justice is not served by the present law. It should be possible for the prosecution to directly examine an accused [...] It was a clear example of the privilege of silence having enabled a guilty man to escape." In his opinion Adams "was so incredibly lucky to have literally got away with murder".[12]
He was appointed a High Court judge on 1 October 1957,[13] and (as is traditional) knighted a few days later.[14] For the first four years he was assigned to the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division, and it was only after his transfer to the Queen's Bench Division, that he began to attract press attention.[1]
In 1969, as a judge, he sentenced the Kray brothers, saying "In my view, society has earned a rest from your activities."[15] Then in 1970 he controversially gave long sentences to Cambridge University students for taking part in the 'Garden House riot' demonstration against the military government in Greece.[2]
In the 1973 New Year Honours he became a Privy Counsellor,[16] and retired in 1979.[9] In 1975 he presided over a trial of eight Irishmen accused of conspiracy to cause explosions in the UK. Found guilty, they were sentenced to 20 years each.
Stevenson's home on the Sussex coast was called 'Truncheons': although this was sometimes taken to reflect his authoritarian views the site had in truth been known by that name for many years before Stevenson lived there.[12][17] He died in 1987 of a heart attack.
He married twice and had three children.[2] He threw out his first wife for having an affair with Colonel Maurice Buckmaster, head of the French section of the Special Operations Executive.[18]
As a judge Stevenson was known for being outspoken:[15]
When presiding over a rape case, he described it as a "pretty anaemic kind of rape" because the accused's ex-girlfriend was the victim.[19]
Stevenson once said of a husband in a divorce case, “He chose to live in Manchester, a wholly incomprehensible choice for any free man to make“.[20]
To a man acquitted of rape he commented, “I see you come from Slough. It is a terrible place. You can go back there“.[20]
Of the Krays, he once said that they had only told the truth twice during the trial - when Reggie referred to a barrister as "a fat slob" and later when Ronnie accused the judge of being biased.[20]
In 1978 Stevenson was reprimanded by the Lord Chancellor Elwyn Jones[21] for calling the Sexual Offences Act 1967 a "buggers' charter".[15]
In the 1994 memoirs, Sword and Wig, of retired Court of Appeal judge, Sir Robin Dunn, Stevenson was described as, "the worst judge since the war". This prompted a number of high profile legal figures to defend Stevenson.[22]
Stevenson was played by Bernard Horsfall in the Lucky, Lucky Thirteen! episode in season one of "Lady Killers", 1980.[23]
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