In a 1992 interview, Bridge said that he felt "unhappy", but not "guilty", about what had happened at the trial. The convictions were quashed by the Court of Appeal in 1991, after the defendants had served 16 years in prison.Īs a result of the trial, Bridge was added to the IRA's hit-list, and his house came under constant police protection. During sentencing, he said that there was "the clearest and most overwhelming evidence I have ever heard in a case of murder". He also admitted into evidence the defendants' confessions, despite the defence arguing that they were beaten out of them. He lost his voice during the summing up, which was criticised as being biased against the defendants.
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The trial was marred by Bridge's health: at various points it was interrupted to allow him to see a dentist, for treatment for acute gastritis, and for lunchtime naps on his doctor's orders. It was his last case before he joined the Court of Appeal. In 1975, Bridge was the presiding judge at the trial of the Birmingham Six, who were accused of bombings in Birmingham in November 1974. Assigned to the Queen's Bench Division, he was presiding Judge of the Western Circuit from 1972–74. He was made a bencher at Inner Temple in 1964, Reader in 1985 and Treasurer in 1986.īy tradition Treasury Devils were appointed to the High Court after their term, and after four years as Treasury Devil Bridge was appointed a Justice of the High Court of Justice in 1968, receiving the customary knighthood. He was the last Treasury Devil to try a case from private practice while in office. After pupillage under Martin Jukes, he joined a set of chambers specializing in personal injury cases, before joining John Widgery's chambers at 3 Temple Gardens in 1950, where he specialized in local government and planning law.įrom 1964 to 1968, he was Junior Counsel to the Treasury (Common Law), commonly known as Treasury Devil.
Legal career īridge was called to the bar at Inner Temple in 1947, having achieved the first place in that year's bar exams. He then became much in demand as a defending officer, giving him a taste for advocacy. Shortly after he was commissioned, and without any previous experience, he successfully defended a soldier on a charge of desertion at a court-martial. He was demobilised in 1946 with the rank of captain. He was instead conscripted into the British Army in 1940, and commissioned into the King's Royal Rifle Corps, serving in Italy, north-west Europe, and Germany. He volunteered to join the Fleet Air Arm before the Second World War broke out, but was rejected as being colour blind. Returning to Britain, he worked as a journalist on regional newspapers in Lancashire, and wrote an unpublished novel. Disliking the school, he went to Europe, where he learned French and German. He followed his elder brother to Marlborough College, with a scholarship. He was the younger brother of Anthony Bridge, later Dean of Guildford. He never met his father, who had abandoned his mother shortly after his birth. Bridge was born in Codicote, Hertfordshire, the second son of Commander Cyprian Dunscomb Charles Bridge, Royal Navy, and of Gladys Bridge, née Steel, the daughter of a Lancashire cotton manufacturer.