Charles Gray (judge)
{{Short description|British judge (1942–2022)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
Sir Charles Antony St John Gray, QC (6 July 1942 – 3 March 2022) was a British barrister and judge, who specialised in intellectual property, copyright, privacy and defamation cases. As a judge, he presided over the trial of David Irving's libel lawsuit against Professor Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin Books over claims that Irving was a Holocaust denier; Gray delivered a 349 pages long judgment against Irving.{{cite web |url=http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/2000/115.html|title= Irving v. Penguin Books Limited|author= Mr Justice Gray|date= 11 April 2000|publisher= |accessdate=5 January 2011}}[http://www.3vb.com/associate-members-SirCharles-Gray.html 3VB profile] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120909031124/http://www.3vb.com/associate-members-SirCharles-Gray.html |date=September 9, 2012 }}
Biography
Gray attended Trinity College, Oxford, earning a bachelor's degree in 1961.{{cite book|last1=Hopkins|first1=Clare|title=Trinity: 450 Years of an Oxford College Community|date=2005|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=9780199518968|page=487|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4FvFiVO_Rh8C&pg=PA487|accessdate=17 January 2017|language=en}} He was called to the bar by Lincoln's Inn and began his practice in 1967. Cases he tried include Crossman Diaries, Saatchi v Saatchi & Saatchi, Elton John v MGN, Aldington v Tolstoy, Aitken v Granada and Guardian. He took silk in 1984 as a Queen's Counsel{{London Gazette |issue=49724 |date=3 May 1984 |page=6278}} and was elected a bencher in 1993.
Gray retired in 2008 although occasionally presided over the Queen's Bench until 2011. He served as an adjudicator in lawsuits against News Group Newspapers brought by people whose phones were hacked by the group. He was a Commissioner in the High Court of Jersey.{{cite news|title=Sir Charles Gray|url=http://www.3vb.com/our-people/associate-members/sir-charles-gray|publisher=3 Verulam Buildings Barristers}}
Gray was knighted by the Queen in December 1998.{{cite news|title=Honours and Awards|url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/L-55369-1SI|accessdate=17 January 2017|work=The London Gazette|date=8 January 1999}} He died on 3 March 2022, at the age of 79.{{cite news |title=Sir Charles Gray, brilliant QC and judge renowned for his judgment in the Irving Holocaust denial trial and many other cases – obituary |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2022/03/07/sir-charles-gray-brilliant-qc-judge-renowned-judgment-irving/ |access-date=7 March 2022 |publisher=The Telegraph |date=7 March 2022}} {{subscription required}}
He was portrayed by actor Alex Jennings in Denial, the 2016 film based on the Irving v Penguin Books Ltd and Lipstadt case.{{cite news|last1=Bellan|first1=Bernie|title=A review of "Denial": "Confronting the evil in men"|url=http://www.jewishpostandnews.ca/features/2190-a-review-of-denial-confronting-the-evil-in-men|accessdate=17 January 2017|work=Jewish Post and News}}
References
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Category:English King's Counsel
Category:21st-century English judges
Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford
Category:21st-century King's Counsel
Category:Queen's Bench Division judges
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