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Until March 2022 Her Honour Wendy Joseph KC was a judge at the Old Bailey, sitting on criminal cases, trying mainly allegations of murder and other homicide. She read English and Law at Cambridge, was called to the Bar by Gray's Inn in 1975, became a QC in 1998 and sat as a full-time judge from 2007 to 2022. When she moved to the Old Bailey in 2012 she was the only woman amongst sixteen judges, and only the third woman ever to hold a permanent position there. She was also a Diversity and Community Relations Judge, working to promote understanding between the judiciary and many different sectors of our community, particularly those from less privileged and minority groups. She mentors young people, from a variety of backgrounds, who hope for a career in law and has a special interest in helping women. Unlawful Killings is her first book.
Who hasn't wanted to be a judge and sit and deliver verdicts on all those evil people who do the most appalling things to other people - more often than not, members of their own family, or to someone that they know. You might think again after reading Unlawful Killings which will make you question all the fundamentals that you've come to take for granted about offenders, the crimes that they commit - especially murder - and the punishment they deserve. It will also make you think again about our judges and I for one was left gladdened that we have someone of this quality assessing what was right and what was wrong. A page turner that will leave you wanting to know more. -- Emeritus Professor David Wilson Author of My Life with Murderers This book is no blood and guts 'True Murder' crime tale. Nor is it an egotistical memoir of a judge glorying in their 'Great Cases'. It is in fact a superb work providing the reader with a truly authentic judicial insight into the human stories and legal and forensic framework that constitute today's criminal trials of those accused of unlawfully killing another human being. It is permeated too with clearsighted analysis of the backstory to such killings, whether that be the pull of street gangs, the blight of domestic violence, the tragedy of death on our roads or the infliction of violence said to have been caused by mental illness or the ill temper of those with a disordered personality. The author though is no over serious proselytiser as the early tale of a school visit to the Old Bailey reveals. Both her wit and wisdom deserve as wide an audience as possible. -- His Honour David Radford With compassion, wisdom, sardonic humour and a novelistic skill with pace and words, this is a breakthrough in expressing heinous crime from the position of one who had the fearful job of ruling upon it. -- Philip Mould * Philip Mould & Company *
