Rose Heilbron was a stellar criminal barrister. On 4 January 1972 she became the first female judge to sit at the Old Bailey. A couple of years later she was appointed to the High Court although like many early female judges she was initially placed in the divorce jurisdiction.
She had been junior in Learie Constantine’s battle. In 1943, the famous cricketer had travelled with his family from Liverpool to London to play for a Dominions team against England at Lord’s. They arrived at the Imperial Hotel in Russell Square after booking. The receptionist was reported to have said to him “We won’t have niggers in this hotel” because white American servicemen were staying.
The hotel was held by the court to have breached the common law that innkeepers could not refuse accommodation without just cause. Constantine himself was called to the bar in 1954 and became the first black peer in 1969.
Heilbron defended George Kelly in the Cameo murder trial. Kelly was found guilty and hanged. Kelly, the “Little Caesar of Lime Street”, initially said he was not “having a Judy defend [him]”, “Judy” probably being slang for woman from “Punch & Judy”.
Although Kelly was found guilty and later hanged, he changed his view during the trial and praised her defence. Heilbron’s own work was not questioned when the conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeal 53 years later.
Heilbron the judge presided over the murder trial of Alexander Sinclair, better known in Australia and New Zealand as Terrance John Clark, head of the Mr Asia drug syndicate. Her obituary in The Guardian stated:
At the end, she ordered the principal defendant, Alexander Sinclair, to pay £1m towards the prosecution costs, saying she had been told he was worth £25m, ‘give or take a million or two’.
Incidentally, the newspaper reports show some difficulty in working out what to call her. There was “Justice Dame Heilbron”, “Mrs Justice Heilbron” and a mere “Justice Heilbron”.
