Robert Michael Oldfield Havers, Baron Havers,PC (10 March 1923 – 1 April 1992), was a British barrister andConservative politician. He was knighted in 1972[2] and appointed a life peer in 1987.
Havers was born inNorth Sheen in 1923, the second son of High Court judgeSir Cecil Havers and Enid Flo Havers,née Snelling.[3][4] He was the brother ofBaroness Butler-Sloss (born 1933) who in 1988 became the first woman named to theCourt of Appeal and later President of theFamily Division.
He was educated atWestminster School, before joining theRoyal Navy in 1941 during theSecond World War. He served as a 19-year-old midshipman onHMSSirius attached to Force Q in the Mediterranean. On 10 September 1943, he was promoted from temporaryacting sub-lieutenant to temporarysub-lieutenant.[5] Following the end of the war, he transferred to the permanentRoyal Navy Volunteer Reserve during April 1947 in the rank oflieutenant seniority from 1 August 1945.[6]
After demobilization, he matriculated atCorpus Christi College, Cambridge, in 1946, where he read law.
Havers was called to the bar in 1948 and undertook hispupillage in the chambers ofFred Lawton, as the pupil ofGerald Howard. Havers was made aQueen's Counsel in 1964. He was theRecorder ofDover from 1962 to 1968 and Recorder ofNorwich from 1968 to 1971.[3] He was elected a bencher of the Inner Temple in 1971.
Havers was elected to theHouse of Commons representingWimbledon in 1970, a seat he held until 1987. He served asSolicitor General underEdward Heath from 1972 to 1974. He became a member of thePrivy Council in 1977. He served asAttorney-General for England and Wales andNorthern Ireland from 1979 to 1987 underMargaret Thatcher; his was the longest unbroken tenure of the office since the eighteenth century. During theFalklands War, Havers was included in Thatcher'sWar Cabinet, to which he provided advice on international law and rules of engagement.[3]
In June 1987 he was appointedLord Chancellor and consequently became alife peer asBaron Havers, ofSt Edmundsbury in the County of Suffolk,[7] the last to be ennobled upon appointment. However, he was forced to resign that October, due to ill health.[4]
In May 1981, at the beginning of the trial ofPeter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, Sutcliffe pleaded not guilty to 13 counts of murder, but guilty tomanslaughter on the grounds ofdiminished responsibility. The basis of this defence was his claim that he was the tool of God's will. Sutcliffe first claimed to have heard voices while working as a gravedigger, that ultimately ordered him to kill prostitutes. He said the voices originated from a headstone of a deceased Polish man, Bronislaw Zapolski,[8] and that the voice was that of God.[9][10]
He also pleaded guilty to seven counts ofattempted murder. The prosecution intended to accept Sutcliffe's plea after four psychiatrists diagnosed him withparanoid schizophrenia. However, the trial judge,Mr Justice Boreham, demanded an unusually detailed explanation of the prosecution reasoning. After a two-hour submission by Havers, the Attorney-General, a 90-minute lunch break and a further 40 minutes of legal discussion, Justice Boreham rejected the diminished responsibility plea and the expert testimonies of the four psychiatrists, insisting that the case should be dealt with by a jury. The trial proper was set to commence on 5 May 1981.
Havers drew controversy at the outset of the trial, when he said of Sutcliffe's victims in his introductory speech: "Some were prostitutes, but perhaps the saddest part of the case is that some were not. The last six attacks were on totally respectable women."[11] In response to this remark, theEnglish Collective of Prostitutes accused Havers of "condoning the murder of prostitutes", and women demonstrated outside theOld Bailey with placards in protest.[12]
The trial lasted a fortnight and, despite the efforts of his counselJames Chadwin,QC, Sutcliffe was found guilty of murder on all counts and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Havers representedthe Crown in two high-profileTroubles-related miscarriages of justice in British judicial history:[13] the trial and appeal of theGuildford Four and also of the Maguire family (known as theMaguire Seven), all of whom were wrongfully convicted. Collectively, they served a total of 113 years in prison. One of the Maguire Seven, Giuseppe Conlon, died in prison, convicted on the basis of discredited forensic evidence.[14]
In the case of the Guildford Four, theDirector of Public Prosecutions was found to have suppressed alibi evidence that supported Gerry Conlon and Paul Hill's claims of innocence.[15] The Director of Public Prosecutions, for whom Havers was acting, was also found to have suppressed confessions by Provisional IRA bombers, known as theBalcombe Street Gang, claiming responsibility for the Guildford and Woolwich bombings.[citation needed]
In his submission toSir John May's Inquiry into the Guildford and Woolwich bombings in 1989, Labour MPChris Mullin cast doubt on Havers's integrity in the matter:[16]
Sir Michael Havers represented the Crown at the trials of the Guildford Four, Mrs. Maguire and her family and at the re-trial/appeal of the Guildford Four. He is, therefore, probably the person who can lay claim to the most detailed knowledge of this affair. I respectfully submit that any inquiry that passed without the benefit of his experience would be deficient....
The only hope of sustaining the original convictions was to rewrite the script from top to bottom. This Sir Michael and his colleagues proceeded to do with ingenuity and relish.
Havers married Carol Elizabeth Lay in 1949, with whom he had two sons: Philip Havers, who became a Queen's Counsel like his father, and the actorNigel Havers.[17] Havers was a member of theGarrick Club,[17] primarily for barristers, judges and actors.
The house at Gothic Lodge, Woodhayes Road,Wimbledon, where Sir Michael and Lady Havers had an apartment, was bombed by theProvisional IRA on 13 November 1981; Havers and his family were in Spain at the time of the attack.[17][18] A police constable standing guard outside the house was taken to hospital suffering from shock.[18] A master atKing's College School, Frank Miles, was in bed in his apartment in the same house, and was unhurt because he had left his sitting room. When discovered, Miles was described as 'like Lear in the storm scene'; he took a bottle of champagne into school the next day, to celebrate his deliverance with his pupils.[19]
Havers had twoheart bypass operations in the 1980s.[4] On 1 April 1992, he died from heart failure atSt Bartholomew's Hospital in London at the age of 69, after falling ill while working in his office.[3][20]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forWimbledon 1970–1987 | Succeeded by |
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| Preceded by | Solicitor General for England and Wales 1972–1974 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Attorney General for England and Wales 1979–1987 | Succeeded by |
| Attorney General for Northern Ireland 1979–1987 | ||
| Preceded by | Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain 1987 | Succeeded by |
Margaret Thatcher
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