YORK Crown Court was part of an unusual five-court live television link-up to honour a trail-blazing barrister and judge.

Judge Jacqueline Davies was so popular that Leeds Crown Court's largest courtroom was not big enough to hold all those who wanted to listen to the Recorder of Leed's eulogy about her.

So the court service arranged for live television links with courtrooms in four other crown courts where she used to sit - York, Sheffield, Hull and Bradford.

The judicial benches in all five were lined with judges sitting alongside each other above the well of the courts where barristers, solicitors, court staff and others who knew her sat.

All saw and heard the Recorder of Leeds, Judge Guy Kearl, flanked by a dozen judges, say Judge Davies' intelligence, ability and dedication enabled her to succeed first as a barrister and then a highly respected judge in a very male-dominated profession.

She was kind, humble and had time for everyone regardless of their rank or position, he said.

In 2009, she raised £28,000 for charity by walking across the Sinai Desert in memory of her husband Paul, who had died the previous year.

Judge Davies was born in 1948, called to the Bar in 1975, became a judge in 1993, and was president of the Council of HM Circuit Judges in 2011. She retired in 2016 and died on Maundy Thursday after a short illness.