THE lawyer who prosecuted the Great Heck train crash trial will be the most senior judge in North-East England and Yorkshire from January 1.

Mr Justice Goss, now a High Court judge in the Queen’s Bench Division, will be the presiding judge of the north eastern circuit, which includes York and North Yorkshire, for the next three years.

James Goss was called to the bar in 1975, was appointed as a recorder or part-time judge in 1994, took silk in 1997, was made up to a circuit judge in 2009 and became a High Court judge in 2014.

He succeeds Mr Justice Globe and will supervise judges on the circuit as well as overseeing the allocation of cases and hearing the most difficult and most serious cases on his circuit.