John Leonard (judge)

Sir Hamilton John Leonard (28 April 1926 – 10 August 2002) was an English barrister and judge, described as "one of the great criminal specialists of his generation". He was involved in several prominent criminal cases, but is best known for his sentencing in the Ealing vicarage case, for which he was widely criticised for giving two rapists what were perceived as lenient sentences.

Leonard was born in 1926 in either Poole, Dorset, or Swindon, Wiltshire. His father owned a confectionery factory. He was educated at Dean Close School, Cheltenham. He joined the Coldstream Guards on leaving school in 1944, and served in Germany during World War II. After the war, he remained in Germany where he was involved in courts-martial. He left the army in 1947, having attained the rank of captain. He then received a bachelor's degree in law from Brasenose College, Oxford.

Leonard was called to the bar in 1951. He entered the chambers of John Buzzard and specialised in criminal cases. He generally though not invariably appeared for the prosecution. In 1964, he became the central criminal court's second junior prosecuting counsel, and took silk in 1969. His Telegraph obituary describes him as a "shrewd prosecutor and deadly cross-examiner", adding that his style was "fair and understated, precise rather than flamboyant." As a barrister, he was involved in the prosecutions of Emil Savundra for fraud, of the Kray brothers for the murders of Frank Mitchell and Jack McVitie, of Graham Young for poisoning several colleagues with thallium in their tea, and of George Ince and others for the so-called "Barn Murder" of Muriel Patience. He also repeatedly defended Patrick Armstrong, one of the Guildford Four, whose conviction for the Woolwich and Guildford pub bombings was eventually overturned.

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