Obituary: Sir Charles Mantell

Born: 30 January, 1937, in Romiley, Cheshire.

Died: 1 May, 2010, in Suffolk, aged 73.

SIR Charles Mantell was either involved in or presided over some of the most infamous cases in British legal history.

Born in Romiley, Cheshire, Charles Barry Knight Mantell was educated at Manchester Grammar School, the studied law at Manchester University. In the days when young men were still called for National Service, Mantell spent 1958-61 in the RAF, marrying Shirley Cogger, who was studying singing at the Royal Northern College of Music, in 1960.

He was subsequently called to the Bar by Gray's Inn, serving at 3 King's Bench Walk, Temple, before moving on to the chambers of Sir Patrick Russel. Russel was an admirer of Mantell, considering him the finest advocate he had ever come across.

Mantell was a tour de force in the courtroom, a fearsome individual of ample build yet often praised for his thoughtfulness and kind demeanour by distressed witnesses and shocked jurors. His nickname among the legal fraternity was "Man-mountain Mantell".

The catalogue of trials in which he was involved is extensive, one of the most famous being the 1975 trial at Lancaster Gate of the Birmingham Six. Mantell was junior Crown counsel on that occasion when the Irish men were convicted of planting bombs in two Birmingham pubs on 21 November, 1974. They were subsequently released on 14 March, 1991 when their convictions were declared unsafe.

In 1977, Mantell was in the prosecutor's chair during the trial of Trevor Hardy, or the Beast of Manchester, as he had been dubbed following the murder of three teenage girls between 1974 and 1977. Thirty-three years later Hardy remains in jail, serving out his sentence in Wakefield Prison, West Yorkshire.

In 1980 Mantell was involved in what was at the time the longest and most expensive case in British legal history, the "Handless Corpse" trial.

In 1979 a millionaire New Zealander named Christopher Martin "Marty" Johnstone flew in to Britain to complete a drug deal in Scotland. Dubbed "Mr Asia" by a New Zealand newspaper after a run of successful drug trafficking, Johnstone met with members of an international drug gang. He was then murdered by Andy Maher on the orders of Terry Clark.

In order to try to fool the local constabulary Johnstone's murderers removed his hands and mutilated his face before tying the ragged body to bricks and dumping it in Eccleston Delph quarry, Lancashire.

The killers' attention to detail left a lot to be desired and although they removed appendages that may have identified the man, they left him wearing his instantly recognisable medallion. When the body was discovered by two amateur divers on 14 October, 1979 a picture was published in the local paper and Johnstone's girlfriend identified the victim. Maher, Clark and two others were convicted of Johnstone's murder in 1980.

Mantell then moved to Hong Kong to take up the position of supreme court judge, a role he fulfilled between 1982 and 1985. Upon his return he presided as judge on the Western Circuit before being appointed High Court judge in 1990, an appointment that was sealed with a knighthood. During this time he tried many high-profile cases, although none as famous as the trial of Rosemary West.

West and her husband Fred lived at 25 Cromwell Street, an address that would soon stick in the minds of the nation. Between 1967 and 1994 the pair tortured, raped and murdered at least 12 young girls. To evade suspicion Fred West would sink the bodies in to the fabric of the house, bury them in the garden or mix them in to the patio. Fred West hanged himself in his prison cell before he could be taken to trial.

During the West trial, Mantell's calm air brought serenity to the pantomime atmosphere that had the tabloids baying for blood. His relationship with the jury was one of trust and comradeship.

Understandably during such a traumatic trial, witnesses broke down and jurors were horrified at what they were hearing, and for all concerned Mantell's quiet, kind manner was effective at keeping proceedings on track. One witness in particular, Rosemary West's stepdaughter Anne Marie, who had herself been subjected to sexual abuse on many occasions, noted at the conclusion of the trial that she was grateful for Mantell's "kindness throughout".

At the request of the jurors and against his better judgment, Mantell agreed, on day 13 of the trial, to view the house at Cromwell Street, along with the jurors. Despite the best attempts to protect the identities of the jurors, a press photographer managed to get a shot, and Mantell was not best pleased.

It took Mantell three days to sum up the case. Towards the end, though, he was direct, saying to the accused: "If attention is paid to what I think, you will never be released."

Following the West trial Mantell sat as an appeal court judge and together with the Lord Chief Justice and Mr Justice Leveson he dismissed the posthumous appeal of the family of James Hanratty, hanged for murder and attempted murder in 1962.

In 2006 he was appointed a surveillance commissioner, a position that regulated undercover operations and the use of informants.

Sir Charles Barry Knight Mantell remained active in law until his death. A lover of golf and cricket, he claimed, jokingly, to have the best swing in north-west Europe.

He is survived by his wife, daughters Charlotte and Victoria and grandchildren Seamus, Alice, Florence and Matilda.