A FORMER top judge who presided at York Crown Court has died aged 69.

As The Press reported last year, Judge Paul Batty QC called it a day and permanently hung up his judge's robes having been the Honorary Recorder of York from 2015 to 2019.

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He handled the most serious cases that came before the York court during his time in the city.

From time to time he ordered public rewards for spirited members of the public which they received from the High Sheriff of North Yorkshire in special ceremonies for their actions in catching criminals or bringing them to justice. 

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After he left York, major health problems prevented Judge Batty from working regularly again.

Judge Batty also spent more than a decade dispensing justice at Carlisle Crown Court after being appointed a circuit judge in 2003.

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 QC (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.

Judge Batty moved with his wife, Angela, from their Dumfriesshire home to North Yorkshire when his career path led to York Crown Court.

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.

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.