Andrew George Lindsay Nicol (born 9 May 1951) is a retired judge of the High Court of England and Wales. He was educated at

City of London Freemen's School City of London Freemen's School (CLFS) is a co-educational independent school for day and boarding pupils, located at Ashtead Park in Surrey, England. It is the sister school of the City of London School and the City of London School for Girls ...

Selwyn College, Cambridge Selwyn College, Cambridge (formally Selwyn College in the University of Cambridge) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1882 by the Selwyn Memorial Committee in memory of George Augustus Selwyn (1 ...

, and

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

(LLM). He was called to the bar at

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn ...

in 1978 and became a

bencher A bencher or Master of the Bench is a senior member of an Inn of Court in England and Wales or the Inns of Court in Northern Ireland, or the Honorable Society of King's Inns in Ireland. Benchers hold office for life once elected. A bencher ca ...

there in 2004. He was made a QC in 1995, deputy judge of the High Court from 2003 to 2009, and judge of the

High Court of Justice The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Senior Courts of England and Wales. Its name is abbreviated as EWHC (Englan ...

(Queen's Bench Division) since 2009. He co-wrote ''Media Law'' with

Geoffrey Robertson Geoffrey Ronald Robertson (born 30 September 1946) is a human rights barrister, academic, author and broadcaster. He holds dual Australian and British citizenship.

. Nicol was quoted as saying: "Trials derive their legitimacy from being conducted in public; the judge presides as a surrogate for the people, who are entitled to see and approve the power exercised on their behalf. Those who assist the prosecution can and should be protected by other means. No matter how fair, justice must still be seen before it can be said to be done".

Controversial cases

David Sellu

Nicol was the judge in the trial of consultant surgeon David Sellu in November 2013. Sellu was found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter following the death of a patient under his care. He served 15 months imprisonment of a 30-month sentence. After release, Sellu's appeal against the conviction was successful in 2016. The successful ground for the appeal was that Nicol had failed to instruct the jury properly regarding the grossness element of the offence.

Johnny Depp/''The Sun''

Nicol presided over the 2020

libel suit Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

Depp v News Group Newspapers Ltd was a defamation lawsuit brought in England. The case was initiated by American actor Johnny Depp, who sued News Group Newspapers (NGN) and then executive editor Dan Wootton for libel after '' The Sun'' ran an article that claimed Depp had ...

'', in which

Johnny Depp John Christopher Depp II (born June 9, 1963) is an American actor and musician. He is the recipient of multiple accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for three Academy Awar ...

sued British tabloid newspaper '' The Sun'', which had claimed in an article that Depp was a "wife beater". Nicol ruled against Depp, accepting that 12 of 14 alleged accounts of violence committed by Depp against

Amber Heard Amber Laura Heard (born April 22, 1986) is an American actress. She had her first leading role in the horror film '' All the Boys Love Mandy Lane'' (2006), and went on to star in films such as '' The Ward'' (2010) and '' Drive Angry'' (2011). ...

were true. Depp was denied permission to appeal by two judges of the Court of Appeal, who stated that they did not believe there was a real prospect of overturning the findings, and that the hearings had been fair. In 2022 Depp sued Heard in a separate defamation case in the United States. This case had a different outcome, with the jury finding that Heard had defamed Depp.

Personal life

Nicol is married to

Camilla Palmer Camilla Palmer is a solicitor specialising in employment law and was appointed a Queen's Counsel in 2015. She founded the legal partnership Palmer Wade, the forum Women's Equality Network and the charity Your Employment Settlement Service (YESS ...

; they have two sons.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nicol, Andrew George Lindsay 1951 births Living people People educated at City of London Freemen's School Alumni of Selwyn College, Cambridge Harvard Law School alumni Members of the Middle Temple Queen's Bench Division judges English King's Counsel Knights Bachelor

Controversial cases

David Sellu

Johnny Depp/''The Sun''

Personal life

See also

References