Paul Batty, a former Honorary Recorder of Carlisle who was also elected a freeman of the city in recognition of his distinguished service, has died at the age of 69.
His Honour Judge Batty QC spent more than a decade dispensing justice at Carlisle Crown Court after being appointed a circuit judge in 2003.
He served two four-year terms as Carlisle’s resident judge, presiding over some of the county’s most serious criminal cases while also nominating public spirited and brave members of the public for High Sheriff awards which recognised their efforts in helping to bring defendants to justice.
Hailing from County Durham, Paul Daniel Batty spent two years as a boarder at Carlisle’s Austin Friars school. An interest in the legal profession began while his father, Vincent, was a chief of police in the coastal town of Seaham Harbour. He would attend court hearings with his father, watching as senior officers prosecuted cases before addresses by defence solicitors.
After reading law at Newcastle University he joined London’s historic Lincoln’s Inn and was called to the bar in 1975 having formally passed barrister training. He joined chambers in Newcastle and remained there until his appointment as a circuit judge in 2003, sitting as a Recorder — part-time judge — from 1994 before being made a Queen’s Counsel the following year.
He was elected a Freeman of the City of Carlisle in 2016 after serving as its resident judge from 2007 to 2015, including three years in the ceremonial role of Honorary Recorder, before transferring to York.
Speaking in 2015 as he prepared to leave Carlisle, Judge Batty said: “It is really with a mixture of sadness that I am departing but also a sense of pride. I will have been here for 12 years to the day when I depart to go to York.
“I have made some wonderful friendships. By common consent the staff at Carlisle Crown Court are said to be amongst the finest in England. I shall miss them enormously, and of course I will miss my professional colleagues – the other judges.”
Judge Batty moved with his wife, Angela, from their Dumfriesshire home to North Yorkshire when his career path led to York Crown Court. He officially retired last year after a period of ill health.
During the course of presiding over countless cases in Carlisle, Judge Batty’s comments to defendants were reported widely. He long railed against the scourge of drugs in society and was acutely aware that sentencing hearings held not only personal importance to defendants but also had wider importance for the public generally.
“If it is a particular type of case, in respect of which the message needs to be sent out by the way of a deterrent sentence, then I will spell it out for exactly that reason,” he had said.
Away from court, Judge Batty spent much of his spare time fishing. He owned a boat which he kept on the Northumberland coast, fished out in the North Sea for cod and mackerel, and had said of his amazingly relaxing and invigorating hobby: “When I cast off the mooring ropes, I cast off all the troubles and cares, and out to sea I go.”
Judge Batty is survived by his wife, Angela, their daughter, Sarah, and two grandchildren.
