The Rt Hon Sir John Goldring

Sir John Goldring is the President of the Court of Appeal of the Cayman Islands and was appointed from January 2016.

He is also the Chair of the Appeal Panel for the Lambeth Children’s Homes Redress Scheme and the Deputy Investigatory Powers Commissioner (having been Intelligence Services Commissioner).

Sir John Goldring was called to the Bar in 1969. His junior practice was very broad (public inquiry, criminal and civil work) and mainly on the Midland and Oxford Circuit. For the two years prior to taking silk, he was standing counsel (crime) to the Inland Revenue on the Circuit. In 1987 he took silk. When in silk, he was involved in a number of serious and high profile cases of different types. Among other cases, he led for the prosecution in the case of Beverley Allitt (the nurse who murdered several babies), he represented one of the consultants from Guy’s Hospital whose disciplinary case was before the General Medical Council for the alleged sale of kidneys, he was instructed as lead counsel by the Attorney-General of Jersey in the case of Bank Cantrade, the Jersey subsidiary of UBS, (charged with criminal negligence), he was lead counsel in the regulatory case against Coopers and Lybrand (as they then were) concerning, among other things, the audits of the pension funds of the Maxwell companies, he was counsel in the Public Inquiry into child abuse in North Wales.

Between 1996-9, Sir John was a section 9 judge. Between 1998 and 1999 he was a judge of the Courts of Appeal of Jersey and Guernsey, being appointed a judge of the Queen’s Bench Division in 1999, in which role his work consisted mainly of criminal and judicial review cases. Between 2001 and 2004 Sir John was a Presiding Judge of the Midland Circuit, becoming Deputy Senior Presiding Judge of England and Wales on his elevation to the Court of Appeal in 2008. He became Senior Presiding Judge of England and Wales for three years from 2009. Finally, Sir John was appointed as a coroner to hear the Inquests into the 96 deaths of Liverpool fans at Hillsborough.