Michael Duck QC and Adrian Keeling QC have lead tributes to Judge Marten Coates, who is retiring after 40 years of serving justice.
Judge Coates began work as a barrister in 1973, and became a judge in 1997. He gained a reputation for fairness, and for his ability to get through long lists of pleas and sentences quickly.
In a courtroom at Warwick Crown Court, Adrian Keeling QC said: “You are a judge who has never lost sight of the simple word ‘justice’.
“There was always a deeper aim on your part to do the right thing: to be harsh where necessary but, perhaps more difficult, to take a chance when it was warranted.”
Michael Duck QC presented the Judge with a framed painting of the old crown court and also recalled his days as a pupil barrister of Judge Coates saying “I had the most instructive pupillage one could hope for; I learned a good deal about the job – and a good deal more on how to navigate the pubs of south Warwickshire.
“I still look back and occasionally think, when I have a difficult situation in court, ‘what would Coatesie do?’ It has served me well over 25 years.”
Please click here to read the full story in the Coventry Telegraph.
