NOTABLE LAWYER

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29336, 15 October 1960, Page 16

NOTABLE LAWYER

Visit To Christchurch This Month A notable figure in the Courts of Britain for many years, Mr G. R. Paling, former DeputyDirector of Public Prosecutions in England, will visit Christchurch on Friday, October. 28. That evening he will give a lecture on the workjng of the Department of Public Prosecutions and on the trial of William Joyce. On the Saturday morning he will speak on the trial of James Camb and the trials of Timothy Evans and John Christie. ' That Saturday afternoon Mr Paling will give a lecture on the trial of Dr. Buck Ruxton and this Will be illustrated with slides. The lectures will be given at Canterbury University and a large and representative audience is expected to attend them. The Adult Education Department has sent invitations to members of the legal profession, to law students, members of the Police Force, justices of the peace, and Government departments’ staff members. Those of the general public who are interested will be welcome and if they wish to attend the lectures they should apply to the Adult Education Department. For years the name of G. R. Paling had been familiar to the readers of newspapers in England as prosecution in criminal cases at the Old Bailey, said Professor H. R. Gray, Dean of the Faculty of Daw at the University of Canterbury. Mr Paling had been associated with the prosecution of more than 1000 murderers in the United Kingdom.

In New Zealand, for practical purposes, all prosecutions were public prosecutions, but in England prosecutions were taken not infrequently by private persons. In England those charged with certain crimes could be prosecuted only by the Director of Public Prosecutions, said Professor Gray. Those crimes included murder, treason, the corruption of public officers, and coinage offences. The Director of Public Prosecutions was a lawyer and could be perhaps compared to a Crown Prosecutor in New Zealand but on a nation-wide scale. He operated ail over England.

The job of the police was to get information and- charge an accused in those serious crimes, but the prosecution was run by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Professor Gray said. In most other crimes the prosecutions were run by the -local authorities who were responsible for the administration of the police. The. Department of Public Prosecutions did not undertake civil actions.