Peter Openshaw (judge)
{{for|the physician|Peter Openshaw (physician)}}
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Sir Charles Peter Lawford Openshaw, DL (born 1947), styled The Hon. Mr Justice Openshaw, is a retired judge of the High Court, Queen's Bench Division.{{cite web |url=http://www.dca.gov.uk/judicial/ja_arep1999/chap3.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040722115640/http://www.dca.gov.uk/judicial/ja_arep1999/chap3.pdf |archive-date=July 22, 2004 |title=Appointments |url-status=dead |access-date=September 8, 2016}}
Early life
Openshaw was educated at Harrow School and St Catharine's College, Cambridge.{{cite web|title=Biographies|url=https://www.judiciary.gov.uk/the-president-of-the-queens-bench-divisions-review-of-efficiency-in-criminal-proceedings/biographies/|website=The Review of Efficiency in Criminal Proceedings|publisher=Courts and Tribunals Judiciary|access-date=7 December 2015}}
Legal career
Openshaw was called to the bar by the Inner Temple in 1970. On 9 April 1991, he was appointed a Queen's Counsel (QC).{{London Gazette |issue=52502 |date=12 April 1991 |pages=5717–5718 }}
On 16 March 1999, Openshaw was appointed a Circuit Judge.{{cite news|title=Crown Office|url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/L-55437-1SI|access-date=7 December 2015|work=The London Gazette|issue=55437|date=23 March 1999}} He was appointed the Honorary Recorder of Preston in 1999 and served for seven years.{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929092655/http://www.preston.gov.uk/search/search.aspx?TextID=681625|archive-date=29 September 2007|date=7 June 2006|url=http://www.preston.gov.uk/search/search.aspx?TextID=681625|url-status=dead|title=Preston welcomes new Honorary Recorder|publisher=Preston City Council}}
In September 2005, he was appointed as a High Court Judge and assigned to the Queen's Bench Division. In 2005, he became a member of the Criminal Procedure Rules Committee. He is no longer on the Committee. Between 2008 and 2012, he was a presiding judge of the North Eastern Circuit.{{cite web|title=(Charles) Peter Lawford Openshaw OPENSHAW|url=http://www.debretts.com/people-of-today/profile/20413/%28Charles%29-Peter-Lawford-Openshaw-OPENSHAW|website=People of Today|publisher=Debrett's|access-date=7 December 2015}} He was made a Bencher of the Inner Temple in 2003.
He came to the attention of media when he said "The trouble is I don’t understand the language. I don’t really understand what a website is." during the trial of Younes Tsouli, Waseem Mughal, and Tariq al-Daour.{{cite news |last=Trevelyan |first=Mark |title='What is a website?' asks judge |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/what-is-a-website-asks-judge/P3L2B5W5K4GZBUHAQTFKHADXN4/ |work=The New Zealand Herald |agency=Reuters |date=May 17, 2007 |access-date=October 24, 2020}}{{cite news |last=Gibb |first=Frances |title=Judge halts terror trial to ask: what's a website? |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/judge-halts-terror-trial-to-ask-whats-a-website-3p29l0xcbt8 |work=The Times |date=May 18, 2007 |access-date=October 24, 2020}} The Judicial Communications Office later explained that he was clarifying the evidence presented for the court, not for himself.{{cite news |last=Trevelyan |first=Mark |title=Judge defended over "what is Web site?" comment |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-security-britain-internet-idUSL1667622520070518 |website=Reuters |date=May 18, 2007 |access-date=October 24, 2020}}
On 25 November 2016, he presided over the sentencing of Stephen Port who was found guilty of the four murders, 10 offences of administering a substance with intent, four rapes and four sexual assaults.{{Cite news |date=2016-11-23 |title=Stephen Port: Serial killer guilty of murdering four men |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-38077859 |access-date=2025-03-24 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}} Port was sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life order for the four murders committed between June 2014 and September 2015.{{Cite news |date=2016-11-25 |title=Serial killer Stephen Port jailed for rape drug murders |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-38102454 |access-date=2025-03-24 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}
He sat as the Judge in the Hillsborough criminal trial R v Duckenfield and R v Mackrell at Preston Crown Court between January 2019 and April 2019.
Personal life
Openshaw is married to Dame Caroline Swift. They were sworn in as High Court judges on the same day in October 2005."[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/lancashire/4297694.stm Married judges make legal history]", BBC News Online, September 30, 2005. Accessed June 6, 2007.
He was the son of Judge William Harrison Openshaw, and his wife, Joyce. Judge William was murdered on 11 May 1981 by John Smith, whom the judge had sent to a borstal for 18 months in 1968 for theft of scrap metal. Smith hid in the judge's garage in Broughton, Lancashire, and stabbed him 12 times. Smith was caught, tried, and convicted of murder in November 1981, and sentenced to life with a minimum of 25 years served.[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2270670/Judge-jails-murderer-who-vowed-to-kill-him.html The Telegraph online], July 08, 2008. Accessed March 26, 2019.
In 2008, Peter Openshaw sentenced killer Daniel Breaks to 30 years, one day after the latter promised to escape custody and kill him. The judge turned to the jury and said he doubted that would happen.{{Cite web |title=Judge jails killer who threatened him |url=https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/3198394.judge-jails-killer-threatened/ |access-date=2022-08-22 |website=Lancashire Telegraph |date=8 July 2008 |language=en}}
Honours
On 10 May 2000, Openshaw was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant (DL) for Lancashire.{{cite news|title=Deputy Lieutenant Commissions|url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/L-55846-499|access-date=7 December 2015|work=The London Gazette|issue=55846|date=12 May 2000}} In 2008, he was appointed a lay canon of Blackburn Cathedral.{{cite web|title=The College of Canons |url=http://www.blackburncathedral.com/levels.asp?level_id=246 |website=Blackburn Cathedral |access-date=7 December 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151009194808/http://www.blackburncathedral.com/levels.asp?level_id=246 |archive-date=9 October 2015 }}
He was knighted upon being appointed as a high court judge.
References
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Category:Alumni of St Catharine's College, Cambridge
Category:21st-century English judges
Category:Queen's Bench Division judges
Category:People educated at Harrow School
Category:Members of the Inner Temple
Category:Deputy lieutenants of Lancashire