Lorimer Eric Leach (born 17 August 1952) is a South African retired

judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

who served in the Supreme Court of Appeal from 2009 to 2020. He is best known for writing the judgement in which the Supreme Court found

Oscar Pistorius Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius ( , ; born 22 November 1986) is a South African double amputee, former professional sprinter, and convicted murderer. He was the 10th athlete to compete at both the Paralympic Games and Olympic Games. Pistorius r ...

guilty of murder. Before his elevation to the appellate court, he was a judge of the

Eastern Cape Division The Eastern Cape Division of the High Court of South Africa is a superior court of law with general jurisdiction over the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The main seat of the division is at Makhanda, with subordinate local seats at Gqeberh ...

from 1993 to 2009, and he practised as an advocate in Grahamstown from 1976 to 1993, taking silk in 1990.

Early life and education

Leach was born on 17 August 1952 in

Port Elizabeth Gqeberha ( , ), formerly named Port Elizabeth, and colloquially referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipal ...

in the

Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape ( ; ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, and its largest city is Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth). Due to its climate and nineteenth-century towns, it is a common location for tourists. It is also kno ...

. He matriculated in 1969 at Hilton College in

Natal Province The Province of Natal (), commonly called Natal, was a province of South Africa from May 1910 until May 1994. Its capital was Pietermaritzburg. During this period rural areas inhabited by the black African population of Natal were organised int ...

, but thereafter he returned to the Cape to enrol at

Rhodes University Rhodes University () is a public research university located in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is one of four universities in the province. Established in 1904, Rhodes University is the prov ...

Grahamstown Makhanda, formerly known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 75,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Gqeberha and southwest of East London. It is the largest town in the Makana Local Mun ...

. After completing his BA at Rhodes in 1972, he completed an LLB at the

University of Natal The University of Natal was a university in the former South African province Natal which later became KwaZulu-Natal. The University of Natal no longer exists as a distinct legal entity, as it was incorporated into the University of KwaZulu- ...

, graduating at the university's

Pietermaritzburg Pietermaritzburg (; ) is the capital and second-largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa after Durban. It was named in 1838 and is currently governed by the Msunduzi Local Municipality. The town was named in Zulu after King ...

campus in 1974. At both universities, he was a member of the provincial

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...

team, but his athletic career was cut short by injury.

Legal career

Leach was called to the bar in Grahamstown on 29 January 1976, and he practised as an

advocate An advocate is a professional in the field of law. List of country legal systems, Different countries and legal systems use the term with somewhat differing meanings. The broad equivalent in many English law–based jurisdictions could be a ba ...

in Grahamstown for the next 17 years, taking silk in 1990. He was also an acting judge on several occasions between 1991 and 1993.

Eastern Cape High Court: 1993–2009

On 28 June 1993, Leach joined the bench permanently as a judge of the

of the

Supreme Court of South Africa The Supreme Court of South Africa was a superior court of law in South Africa from 1910 to 1997. It was made up of various provincial and local divisions with jurisdiction over specific geographical areas, and an Appellate Division which was th ...

. He remained in the court when it became the Eastern Cape High Court after the end of

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

. He was also an acting judge in the Supreme Court of Appeal in 2008.

Supreme Court of Appeal: 2009–2020

Leach was shortlisted for elevation to the Supreme Court of Appeal in mid-2009, and he was interviewed by the Judicial Service Commission in July 2009. In November that year, President

Jacob Zuma Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma (; born 12 April 1942) is a South African politician who served as the fourth president of South Africa from 2009 to 2018. He is also referred to by his initials JZ and clan names Nxamalala and Msholozi. Zuma was a for ...

confirmed his appointment to the appellate court, and he took office on 1 December 2009 alongside Jeremiah Shongwe and

Zukisa Tshiqi Zukisa Laura Lumka Tshiqi (; born 11 January 1961) is a South African judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. She formerly served in the Supreme Court of Appeal from December 2009 until October 2019, when President Cyril Ramaphosa e ...

. He served in the appellate court until his retirement in 2020. During that time, the most notable judgement penned by Leach was that in '' Director of Public Prosecutions, Gauteng v Pistorius'', an appeal of

's conviction of

culpable homicide Culpable homicide is a categorisation of certain offences in various jurisdictions within the Commonwealth of Nations which involves the homicide (illegal killing of a person) either with or without an intention to kill depending upon how a pa ...

in the death of

Reeva Steenkamp Reeva Rebecca Steenkamp ( ; ; 19 August 1983 – 14 February 2013) was a South African model and paralegal. She modelled for '' FHM'' magazine and was the first face of Avon cosmetics in South Africa. Steenkamp once worked as the live roaming p ...

. Writing on behalf of a unanimous five-member bench, Leach overturned the culpable homicide conviction, which he said had resulted from trial judge Thokozile Masipa's misapplication of the principles of ''

dolus eventualis South African criminal law is the body of national law relating to crime in South Africa. In the definition of Van der Walt ''et al.'', a crime is "conduct which common or statute law prohibits and expressly or impliedly subjects to punishment ...

''; the Supreme Court found Pistorius guilty of

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

instead.

Personal life

Leach is married to Celeste Embling, with whom he has two sons. He was Chancellor of the

Anglican Diocese of Grahamstown The Diocese of Grahamstown is a diocese of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. It is centred on the historic city of Makhanda in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The diocese extends to East London, in the east and Port Alfred to the ...

from 1983 to 1990.

References

External links

Lorimer Eric Leach
at Supreme Court of Appeal
L. E. Leach
at Judges Matter {{DEFAULTSORT:Leach, Eric 1952 births 20th-century South African lawyers 20th-century South African judges 21st-century South African judges Living people Judges of the Eastern Cape High Court Judges of the Supreme Court of Appeal (South Africa) South African Senior Counsel Alumni of Hilton College (South Africa) University of Natal alumni Rhodes University alumni People from Gqeberha