OBIT for HHJ MICHAEL COOMBE

OBIT for HHJ MICHAEL COOMBE

 

From The Times

November 8, 2007

 His Honour Michael Coombe

Judge of the Central Criminal Court with a natural instinct for the law

 

Michael Coombe had a long career as Treasury Counsel and later as a permanent judge of the Central Criminal Court, and combined it with his love for the theatre and the arts.
Michael Ambrose Rew Coombe was born in Croydon in 1930. His father was a bank manager in the City. He was educated at Berkhamsted School and read English at New College, Oxford, intending to pursue a career in the theatre. However, after his National Service in the RAF he decided to read law and was called to the Bar by the Middle Temple in 1957. He was awarded the Harmsworth Scholarship and the Robert Garraway Rice Pupillage Prize and became a pupil of Peter (later Lord) Rawlinson, one of the most fashionable advocates of his day.
In 1958 Coombe became a tenant at 2 Harcourt Buildings, the chambers of Mervyn Griffiths Jones, the former Nuremberg prosecutor. He joined the Western Circuit and developed a busy practice as a prosecutor.
In 1971 he was appointed Second Prosecuting Counsel to the Inland Revenue at the Central Criminal Court and the five courts of London Sessions. In 1974 he was appointed first Counsel to the Crown at the Inner London Crown Court and the same year Prosecuting Counsel at the Central Criminal Court where he served first as a junior and then as a senior Prosecuting Counsel for 11 years. During this period he prosecuted in the Oz and the Angry Brigade trials and many of the complex fraud and corruption cases that were fast becoming a feature of criminal practice.
In July 1984 the four most senior Treasury Counsel, including Coombe, were sent for by the Attorney-General, Sir Michael (later Lord) Havers, who informed them that because of the impending creation of the Crown Prosecution Service he intended to “slim down” the Treasury Counsel system. Each was then offered the choice of an appointment as a circuit judge or of becoming Queen's Counsel.
Coombe chose to become a judge rather than take silk and sat for a short time at Snaresbrook Crown Court. His judicial skills were soon recognised and in 1986 he was appointed a permanent judge of the Central Criminal Court where he remained for 17 years until his retirement in 2003.
Coombe was a thorough and meticulous prosecutor and an effective cross-examiner. Although he often decried his ability as a lawyer he had a natural instinct for the law together with a firm grasp of the facts.
In 1984 he was elected a bencher of the Middle Temple and became an enthusiastic member of the Inn, serving on the Education and Students & Pupil Affairs committees and participating in advocacy training. He was elected Deputy Master of the Silver and was proud to be Master of the Snuff.
He enthusiastically pursued his love of printing, the theatre, art and antiquity, and travelled extensively with his wife, Anne, to archaeological sites in Europe and North Africa.
A deeply religious man, he converted to the Roman Catholic faith with his wife in 1994. He is survived by two sons and a daughter.
His Honour Michael Coombe, permanent judge of the Central Criminal Court, 1986-2003, was born on June 30, 1930. He died on October 20, 2007, aged 77