A. C. Alles

Hon. Justice Anthony Christopher Alles or A.C. Alles (1911–2003) was a former Judge of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka and also a non-fiction (crime) writer.

Anthony Christopher (Christie) Alles was born at Matale, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) on 9 July 1911. After receiving his early education under the Jesuit fathers at St.Aloysius College in Galle, and at the Ceylon University, he joined the Ceylon Law College as an advocate student, and, after obtaining First Class Honours in his Law Final, was enrolled as an Advocate of the Supreme Court in 1939. He obtained his degree in Laws of the London University in 1942.

In 1942, he joined the Department of the Attorney-General as a crown counsel, and, as a member of the Department, appeared at the Assizes in several important criminal cases for the state on behalf of the attorney-general. Notable amongst such cases were the Whitehouse murder case, the Wilpattu murder case and the Wirawila Tank murder case. He also frequently appeared for the state as counsel before the Court of Criminal Appeal. In 1962, he was appointed solicitor-general, and was leading counsel for the state before the Bandaranaike Assassination Commission.

In 1964, after he was appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court, he functioned in the Court of Criminal Appeal, and was a member of the bench which heard the appeals in the Kularatne murder case, the Kalattawa murder case and the Kataragama Beauty-Queen Premawathie Manamperi's murder case.

In 1972, while still serving as a judge of the Supreme Court, he was appointed as a member of the Commission of Inquiry established under the Criminal Justice Commissions Act to inquire into the insurgency of April 1971, and he continued to function as commissioner even after his retirement in July 1974. Shortly before his retirement, he functioned as the chief justice. He resigned from the Commission in September 1975, after the major work of the Commission was concluded.

After his retirement as chief justice in July 1974, and his resignation as a member of the Commission of Inquiry under the Criminal Justice Commissions Act, in September 1975, Alles spent time in writing on famous criminal cases which included the S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike assassination and those detailed under his complete works. He wrote 22-books in all, and produced on average a book in almost every year from 1975, in which year he wrote on The Tragedy of Adeline Vitharne, which was reprinted as Vol. 7 in his Famous Criminal Cases of Sri Lanka series. His last work was The Murder of a Mystery Man: Charles-Christophe Taschereau, published in July 1998, at age 87. He passed on New Year's Day in 2003 at age 91.

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