John Kay (judge) - Definition

Other persons have been called John Kay

Sir John William Kay (September 13, 1943 - July 2, 2004) was a Lord Justice of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales and member of the Privy Council from 2000 until his death.

Growing up near Liverpool, he studied mathematics at the University of Cambridge before switching to law. A keen rugby player in his youth and later a club president, he had the satisfaction of seeing his son Ben Kay in England's world championship side of 2003.

After being called to the bar in 1968 following a brief stint as a schoolteacher, he became a Queen's Counsel in 1984 and was named to the High Court of Justice of England and Wales in 1992.

On the Court of Appeal he upheld the conviction of mass murderer Jeremy Bamber in 2002, perhaps his most celebrated case. He subsequently overturned the murder conviction of Sally Clark, accused of killing her two young sons, and dismissed the posthumous appeal in the name of the executed Ruth Ellis on largely technical grounds.

External links

• Telegraph obituary (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/07/db0701.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/07/07/ixportal.html)
• Scotsman/Press Association obituary (http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3166787)