Sir John Arthur Dalziel Owen (22 November 1925 – 9 December 2010) was a British barrister and High Court judge. He has been described as "one of the foremost criminal judges of his time".

Biography

Born in

Stockport Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt, Rivers Goyt and River Tame, Greater Manchester, Tame merge to create the River Mersey he ...

, John Owen was the son of R. J. Owen and Mrs O. B. Owen. His sister is Joan Seccombe, Baroness Seccombe. He came from a legal background: both of his grandfathers and his uncle were lawyers. He was educated at

Solihull School Solihull School is a coeducational private day school in Solihull, West Midlands, England. Founded in 1560, it is the oldest school in the town and is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. History In 1560 the revenu ...

, then went to

Brasenose College, Oxford Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The l ...

, before being called up for military service during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. After a brief stint in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

, he was commissioned into the 2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles, and served in India in the run-up to Partition. Returning to Brasenose in 1947, he read Law and graduated MA and BCL (1949), and obtained a half-blue in athletics. Owen was

called to the Bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...

in 1951, and joined the Midland and Oxford Circuit. Practicing from Arthur Evan James’s chambers in Temple Row, Birmingham, Owen built a mixed practice, but was predominantly engaged in criminal work. He became a

Queen's Counsel A King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) is a senior lawyer appointed by the monarch (or their Viceroy, viceregal representative) of some Commonwealth realms as a "Counsel learned in the law". When the reigning monarc ...

in 1970, and joined Michael Davis QC's chambers at Harcourt Buildings,

Temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

. He was a Deputy Chairman of

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

Quarter Sessions The courts of quarter sessions or quarter sessions were local courts that were traditionally held at four set times each year in the Kingdom of England from 1388; they were extended to Wales following the Laws in Wales Act 1535. Scotland establ ...

from 1967 to 1971 and a Recorder from 1972 to 1984. He was elected 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 c ...

of Gray's Inn in 1980, and was Deputy Leader of Midland and Oxford Circuit from 1980 to 1984. He was also a member of the Senate of the Inns of Court and the Bar from 1977 to 1980 and Chairman of the West Midlands Area Mental Health Review Tribunal from 1972 to 1980. Owen was appointed a Circuit Judge sitting at the Central Criminal Court in 1984, and a Justice of the High Court in 1986. Receiving the customary

knighthood A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

, he was assigned to the

Queen's Bench Division The King's Bench Division (or Queen's Bench Division when the monarch is female) of the High Court of Justice deals with a wide range of common law cases and has supervisory responsibility over certain lower courts. It hears appeals on point ...

. He was Presiding Judge of the Midland and Oxford Circuit from 1988 to 1992. He retired from the High Court in 2000. A member of the

General Synod of the Church of England The General Synod is the tricameral deliberative and legislative organ of the Church of England. The synod was instituted in 1970, replacing the Church Assembly, and is the culmination of a process of rediscovering self-government for the Church ...

for many years, Owen was

Chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

of the

Diocese of Derby The Diocese of Derby is a Church of England diocese in the Province of Canterbury, roughly covering the same area as the County of Derbyshire. Its diocesan bishop is the Bishop of Derby whose seat (cathedra) is at Derby Cathedral. The dioces ...

from 1973 to 1980, of the

Diocese of Coventry The Diocese of Coventry is a Church of England diocese in the Province of Canterbury. It is headed by the Bishop of Coventry, who sits at Coventry Cathedral in Coventry, and is assisted by one suffragan bishop, the Bishop of Warwick. The dioce ...

from 1973 to 1980, and of the

Diocese of Southwell The Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham is a Church of England diocese in the Province of York, headed by the Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham. It covers all the English county of Nottinghamshire and a few parishes in South Yorkshire. It is b ...

from 1979 to 1980. He was Dean of the Arches Court of Canterbury, Auditor of the

Chancery Court of York The Chancery Court of York is an ecclesiastical court for the Province of York of the Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in ...

, and

Master of the Faculties The Master of the Faculties is a judicial officer in the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury and has some important powers in English law, in particular the appointment and regulation of public notaries. Since 1873 the position has al ...

from 1980 to 2000. In 1993, he received a Lamberth DCL. He helped to establish the first degree course in

canon law Canon law (from , , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical jurisdiction, ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its membe ...

in Britain since the Reformation at

Cardiff University Cardiff University () is a public research university in Cardiff, Wales. It was established in 1883 as the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire and became a founding college of the University of Wales in 1893. It was renamed Unive ...

and, in retirement, obtained a

LLM A large language model (LLM) is a language model trained with Self-supervised learning, self-supervised machine learning on a vast amount of text, designed for natural language processing tasks, especially Natural language generation, language g ...

from the university in 1996.

Notable cases

In 1973, Owen defended Father Patrick Fell, a Catholic priest accused of being an IRA commander. As a judge, in 1985, he tried the 12th Duke of Manchester for attempting fraud against the

National Westminster Bank National Westminster Bank, trading as NatWest, is a major retail and commercial bank in the United Kingdom based in London, England. It was established in 1968 by the merger of National Provincial Bank and Westminster Bank. In 2000, it becam ...

. In 1991, he was the judge at first instance in the landmark case

R v R ''R v R'' 991UKHL 12 is a House of Lords judgement in which R was convicted of attempting to rape his wife but appealed his conviction on the grounds of a marital rape exemption whereby R claimed a husband cannot be convicted of raping his wif ...

, which saw the end of the marital rape exemption. In 1992, he was a member of the

Court of Appeal An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to Hearing (law), hear a Legal case, case upon appeal from a trial court or other ...

R v Brown is a House of Lords judgment which re-affirmed the conviction of five men for their involvement in consensual unusually severe sadomasochistic sexual acts over a 10-year period. They were convicted of a count of unlawful and malicious woundi ...

, whose decision was upheld by the House of Lords. In 2000, he tried the farmer Tony Martin for the murder of a burglar.

Family

Owen married, in 1952, Valerie ( Ethell). They had two children, one son and one daughter. Their daughter, Melissa Clare Owen (born 12 November 1960), was married, from 1985 to 1997, to The Hon. Michael-John Ulick Knatchbull, a son of

John Knatchbull, 7th Baron Brabourne John Ulick Knatchbull, 7th Baron Brabourne, (9 November 1924 – 23 September 2005), professionally known as John Brabourne, was a British peer, television producer and Oscar-nominated film producer. Married to the elder daughter of 1st Earl ...

and

Patricia Knatchbull, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma Patricia Edwina Victoria Knatchbull, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma, Baroness Brabourne, , , (née Mountbatten; 14 February 1924 – 13 June 2017), was a British peeress and third cousin of Queen Elizabeth II. She was the elder daughter of ...

References

* https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/sir-john-owen-judge-who-tried-case-which-led-change-law-rape-and-also-presided-over-tony-martin-trial-2193229.html * https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540891.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-29089?rskey=FAJNtL&result=1 {{DEFAULTSORT:Owen, John Knights Bachelor 2010 deaths People from Stockport People educated at Solihull School Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford Royal Navy personnel of World War II British Indian Army officers Members of Gray's Inn English King's Counsel 20th-century King's Counsel Queen's Bench Division judges Circuit judges (England and Wales) 1925 births