BRADFORD’S top judge, Jonathan Durham Hall QC, has announced his retirement following an illustrious legal career.
Here is a look back at 10 of the top trials the Honorary Recorder of Bradford presided over in the city and how the Telegraph & Argus reported on them.
1 'Meggy' trial - May 2019
Two men have been jailed for life for the “barbaric and determined” murder of a victim they hunted down in broad daylight and deliberately ran over on a Bradford street.
Mohammed Nisar Khan, known as Meggy, must serve a minimum term of 26 years before he is released and his “right hand man” Tony Grant, known as Granty, received a 17-year minimum term at Bradford Crown Court.
Khan, 41, of Holme Lane, Tong, Bradford, and Grant, 39, of Queens Road, Bradford, were convicted by the jury of murdering Amriz Iqbal, known as Major, in Sandford Road, Bradford Moor, on October 3 last year.
Khan ran down Mr Iqbal in a 2.2 tonne silver Kia Sedona with Grant in the passenger seat and up to four other men in the back of the vehicle.
Khan was also convicted of attempting to murder Mr Iqbal’s friend, Adnan Ahmed, who was crossing the road with him.
Khan, Grant and Salman Ismail, 31, of Hollin Road, Shipley, Bradford, were convicted of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice by plotting to firebomb and rob the Whitehall Road Service Station in Birkenshaw to destroy CCTV footage of Khan and Grant there with the Kia Sedona an hour before the murder.
Ismail was jailed for 17 years for the conspiracy and for arson at the petrol station.
2 Danny Tetley sentencing - January 2020
Bradford X Factor star Danny Tetley has been jailed for nine years for trading on his celebrity status to sexually abuse seven boys aged between 14 and 16.
Tetley, 39, was led to the cells at Bradford Crown Court today after hearing the city’s top judge say his depravity had “tarnished and destroyed” his TV singing career.
Tetley, of St Enoch's Road, Wibsey, Bradford, pleaded guilty to seven charges of sexual exploitation of a child and two counts of distributing indecent images of children.
The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, told him: “Those in the public eye do not have a licence to abuse those who are mesmerised by them.
“Many will see you for what you are, a despicable creature with very few redeeming features.”
Tetley, in a grey round-necked sweatshirt and blue jeans, was labelled a dangerous predator by the judge who gave him an extended 17-year jail sentence, nine years behind bars and a further eight years on closely monitored licence.
The court heard he abused seven boys by paying them to send him naked photos and pictures in boxer shorts.
3 Bradford grooming and rape gang sentenced to 132 years - February 2019
No major city in England or Wales seems to have escaped the problem of grooming, the judge in the long-running Bradford sex abuse trial said.
The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, referred to earlier grooming cases, in “Rochdale, Leeds, Rotherham, you name it!”
Judge Durham Hall was speaking as he jailed nine men for a total of more than 132 years for their roles in the “wicked and relentless” grooming, rape and sexual exploitation of two vulnerable girls from a Bradford care home.
The teenager at the heart of the seven-week trial was plied with alcohol and cocaine before being “raped without blandishment but with violence” by several of the defendants.
“She was treated by you, or some of you, like a toy or a commodity to be used,” the Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, said.
“For years she felt she had no voice and that she was powerless, but she’s got a voice now, gentlemen,” he told the defendants, who were flanked in the dock by up to ten prison officers.
“No major city in England and Wales seems to have escaped this problem, grooming by older men acting together or alone.
“Your behaviour has been as wicked as it is incomprehensible to our society, and indeed all in this community.”
The abused girls became friends in the children's home before they were “relentlessly sexually abused.”
The teenager abused by all nine defendants was taken to other cities, and men from elsewhere in the country attended at the “party house” in Bradford where drugs and alcohol were freely available.
4 Jail for man who drove wrong way on Bingley bypass at 100mph - May 2020
A BANNED driver who sped down the wrong side of Bingley Bypass at 100mph has been jailed for 16 months.
Nathan Scott (pictured above) was on prison licence for causing serious injury by dangerous driving when he tried to outrun the police in a black VW Passat at 10pm on April 8.
Prosecutor Louise Pryke told Bradford Crown Court this week that Scott, 28, of West Lane, Keighley, had been recalled to prison until March next year.
He was sentenced by the Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, on a video link to HMP Leeds and using the Skype service.
The court heard that Scott had 23 previous convictions for 40 offences.
He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and driving while disqualified at an earlier hearing, and to possession of a machete as an offensive weapon.
Judge Durham Hall QC was outspoken on Bradford danger drivers:
READ MORE: Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC says Bradford district 'in premier league' for road fatalities
5 'Don't apply to go on Brain of Britain' - September 2019
A MAN who grew cannabis to wean himself off heroin, in breach of a suspended sentence for dealing Class A drugs, was advised by a judge not to apply for Brain of Britain.
John Crowther spent £600 setting up the drug farm because he was desperate to beat his long-standing addiction, Bradford Crown Court heard.
Crowther, 51, was caught nurturing 18 cannabis plants, having bypassed the electricity supply at the home he shared with his disabled mother.
He pleaded guilty to production of cannabis on June 26, 2018.
Prosecutor Dave MacKay said that Crowther was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, in December, 2017, for possession with intent to supply crack cocaine and heroin.
He and a co-defendant were arrested in Shipley in May, 2017, with 46 wraps of Class A drugs and a dealer list.
Crowther was not sent immediately to jail because he was the sole carer for his mother.
Three months later, he began growing cannabis at his home in Heights Lane, Eldwick, Bingley.
When police raided the address, they found two rooms of plants, with lighting and ventilators.
Mr MacKay said the drug had a street value of around £15,000 if split into deals and was worth up to £9,000 if sold in bulk.
Crowther said he had been a heroin addict for 20 years and wanted to make cannabis oil for his personal use.
The court heard his disabled mother depended on him.
He used to spend every penny on heroin and he had foolishly decided to switch to cannabis instead of getting professional help.
Crowther bypassed the electricity supply because he was on a carer’s allowance and Universal Credit and could not afford to grow the cannabis any other way.
The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, told Crowther he had made a very stupid mistake and he did not expect to see him again.
“I really would suggest that you don’t apply to go on Brain of Britain,” the judge said.
Crowther could have set the house on fire by tampering with the electricity supply.
He was sentenced to a 12-month community order with a rehabilitation activity requirement and a drug treatment requirement, along with a six month electronically monitored curfew order.
Crowther’s mother, who attended court in a wheelchair, thanked Judge Durham Hall for sparing her son jail.
The Brain of Britain show referenced by the judge is a BBC radio general knowledge quiz, which is broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
6 Shipley robber tries to flee court as judge jails him - September 2013
A dangerous criminal leapt from the dock at Bradford Crown Court after he was sentenced to an extended 12-year prison sentence for six armed robberies yesterday afternoon.
Karl Jones ran towards Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC before making for the exit doors of the courtroom.
Jones, 37, was stopped by freelance court reporter John Davies who rugby tackled him to the floor.
Mr Davies was immediately commended by the judge and awarded £250 from public funds.
Jones was sentenced to nine years behind bars, with a three year extended licence period on top, for six armed robberies at shops in Bradford.
Wearing a bright orange jacket, he asked Judge Durham Hall: “Is that 12 years?”, then shouted “I can’t do 12 years,” as he made his bid for freedom by jumping from the dock, running towards the judge before veering past the clerk and heading for the doors.
One of his relatives shouted “scumbags” at the court as Jones was taken back to the dock and down to the cells when he was recaptured.
Jones, of King’s Drive, Wrose, Shipley, had been brought into court from the cells after being held in prison awaiting sentence The previous month he had pleaded guilty to a knifepoint robbery at Greggs bakery in Bradford on July 5 and admitted further offences yesterday.
The judge told Jones: “Without extensive supervision, you are a real danger.”
7 Burglar told: You'll have to miss races - April 2014
A persistent burglar who ransacked a woman's home to steal almost £7,000 of property was hoping to avoid a prison sentence to attend the Isle of Man TT Races next month, his lawyer told Bradford Crown Court.
But Barry Slaven, who appeared before the court on a video link from Leeds Prison, was instead locked up for 876 days as a "three strikes" house-breaker.
Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC told him: "Can you imagine, Mr Slaven, were I to let you loose, what the Press and the householder would think of me?"
Slaven, 32, of Mint Street, Undercliffe, Bradford, pleaded guilty to burgling a house in Thornfield Place, Eccleshill, overnight between March 1 and 2, while the occupier was away.
His £6,970 haul included television sets, laptop computers, phones, jewellery and passports.
Slaven, who got a kitchen knife from a drawer while in the house, left blood-stains on cupboards after smashing his way in through a door and breaking two windows.
Police later found him hiding inside a wardrobe at his girlfriend's house.
Stolen property and a burglar's toolkit were found at his address.
Robert Galley, for the Crown, said Slaven had committed 68 previous offences, including two house burglaries.
The court heard Slaven's family were so encouraged by his recent progress they had booked him a holiday to watch the TT Races.
Judge Durham Hall told Slaven: "You are a living example of the devastating effects that drugs can have on a human being."
Slaven was jailed for three years, minus 20 per cent for his early guilty plea.
8 'Ponzi' cheat is told to repay £650,000 - March 2014
A conman who funded his lavish lifestyle through a multi-million pound fraud has been been told to repay £650,000 to ripped-off investors.
Although John Hirst enjoyed a millionaire's lifestyle in Majorca a court heard that the 64-year-old fraudster could only pay back a fraction of the £4.7 million he swindled.
Hirst, of Huddersfield Road, Brighouse, was the master-mind behind the so-called "Ponzi" scam and in 2012 he was jailed for nine years.
Yesterday Hirst was brought from custody to Bradford Crown Court for a final hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, who jailed Hirst, was told that investigations resulted in an agreed benefit figure for Hirst of £4,717,042.
But prosecutor Lisa Freeman said Hirst only had assets of £650,522.94.
Judge Durham Hall agreed to make a compensation order totalling £650,522.94 which will be paid to investors on a pro rata basis.
9 Have-a-go hero praised by judge - September 2012
A judge has praised a have-a-go hero who collared a violent drunk smashing windows at Bradford Interchange.
Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC awarded recycling worker Jason Davies £100 from public funds for his citizen's arrest of Zafran Hussain on April 12, 2012.
Hussain, 25, of Poplar Grove, Great Horton, Bradford, caused £465 damage when he punched and kicked two glass panes at the railway station during a tirade of alcohol-fuelled anger.
Mr Davies grabbed him, took him to the ticket office and waited with him until the police arrived.
Hussain, already serving 12 weeks behind bars for an offence of causing actual harm, was jailed for an extra month for criminal damage. Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday he punched and kicked a neighbour and bit him on the ear.
10 'You may spend the rest of your life in prison' - January 2012
A judge warned a "born again preacher" that he could die behind bars as he jailed him for life for a 30-year campaign of rape, brutality and sexual assault.
Brian Jackson must spend almost 13 years behind bars before his release can even be considered.
He will never be freed unless the Parole Board rule he is no longer a danger to women and men.
Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC told him: "If that means you spend the rest of your life in prison, then that is what you will do."
Jackson, 50, of Hall Lane, Windhill, Shipley, who wore a plum-coloured sweatshirt, grey tracksuit bottoms and a silver cross round his neck, remained impassive as he was led to the cells at Bradford Crown He was sentenced after a jury convicted him of causing grievous bodily harm with intent by stabbing a former girlfriend when she gave her sister more potatoes than him.
The jury had found him guilty of raping three women, causing another actual bodily harm, indecently assaulting a fifth woman and sexually assaulting and attempting to rape a man.
During a harrowing trial, in which jurors were at times reduced to tears, Jackson's traumatised victims relived the terror they suffered at his hands.
They recalled a "demon" and "an evil man" whose eyes bulged with rage as he beat, raped and sexually abused them.
Some said they kept the abuse secret because they felt dirty and ashamed.
Jackson, a large and powerful man, was a former member of the Territorial Army and a martial arts enthusiast.
He used his weight and strength to control, bully and dominate after a childhood in which he claimed he was sexually abused and witnessed regular domestic violence.
Judge Durham Hall told Jackson only a life sentence could protect women and men from the "most extreme harm" he posed.
He branded him "disturbed, violent, depraved and dangerous."
"You were absolutely a brute and a bully who derived the most intense satisfaction from remorselessly beating and raping," the judge told him.
Jackson "played out his depravity on the bodies of his victims", Judge Durham Hall said.
The victims included four former partners, a mentally ill woman in-patient at Lynfield Mount Hospital and a young footballer brutalised and sexually attacked in his bedsit.
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