Ronald Appleton

Ronald Appleton, (born 29 December 1927) is the former chief crown prosecutor (Senior Crown Counsel) for Northern Ireland, a post he held for 22 years, a period that spanned the Northern Ireland 'Troubles'.

Having established a broad civil practice as a QC he became one of the most experienced terrorism trial lawyers in the UK.

As senior counsel he led for the Crown in many of the major murder and terrorism cases during those years.

Martin Dillon, in his book on the Shankill Butchers trial described Ronald Appleton as "one of the outstanding lawyers of his generation".

Appleton was born in Belfast in 1927, the eldest son of Jewish immigrant parents.

His mother Sophie, had been born near Kiev in Ukraine, and his father David was born in Dumfries, Scotland from a family of Lithuanian origin.

David was a Merchant Seaman and served with the Royal Australian Navy in the First World War.

He was decorated for his service.

Ronald has two younger brothers; Neil and Ian.

He attended Skegoniel Primary School and Belfast High School (where he later served as school governor).

He obtained his law degree at Queen's University Belfast and was also head of the University Socialist Society.

He worked as a barrister acting for the defence in criminal trials - including in a number of capital cases.

These include the trial following the murder of Constable Victor Arbuckle, the first policeman to be killed in the Northern Ireland Troubles.

Ronald Appleton married Shoshana (née Schmidt) in 1963 in Tel Aviv, Israel.

They have five children.

Maxwell is a leading case dealing with the mens rea of accomplices in joint enterprise cases.

It establishes that an accomplice can be convicted as a principal to a crime even if the role was subordinate.

Posts held by Appleton include King's Counsel (appointed 1969), Senior Crown Prosecutor for Northern Ireland (1977-1999), Father of the Bar, founder and chairman of Pro Bono Society, Committee for Holocaust Remembrance, president of Belfast Hebrew Congregation, co-chair Council of Christians and Jews and founder and president of Thanksgiving Square.

The case was heard at the House of Lords before Viscount Dilhorne, Lord Hailsham, Lord Edmund-Davies, Lord Fraser and Lord Scarman on 24 July, 19 October 1978.

Ronald Appleton QC led for the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland (DPP).

In this trial, Mr Stone pleaded not guilty to a total of 38 terrorist charges relating to 11 separate incidents between November 1984 and 16 March 1988.

These charges included six counts of murder, six attempted murder, six wounding and three conspiracy to murder.

Three of these murder charges were the result of the Milltown Massacre where Mr Stone had thrown grenades and shot at mourners during the funeral of three Provisional IRA volunteers killed in Gibraltar 10 days earlier.

Regarding this incident, Ronald Appleton told Justice Higgins that Stone, using "earthy and colourful language" said "brilliant" when told he had killed at least two people.

Although pleading not guilty, Stone refused to offer any defence.

Stone was convicted and imprisoned with sentences totalling 684 years.

The burial of Caoimhiin Mac Brádaigh (Kevin Brady), an IRA member killed in the Milltown Cemetery Attack by loyalist Michael Stone 3 days earlier, took place shortly after of the previous loyalist attack.

Due to the consequent fear of attacks, when corporals Derek Wood and Robert Howes drove into the IRA procession in civilian clothing, they were surrounded, pulled out of their car and beaten.

They were then dragged to Casement Park sports ground, beaten and stripped of clothing.

At this point they were then thrown over a high wall to be put into a waiting black taxi, driven 200 yards to waste ground and shot several times.

It was confirmed via post-mortem that Corporal Wood was shot twice in the head and four times in the body as well as being stabbed in the neck.

Corporal Howes was shot once in the head and four times in the body.

Ronald Appleton was the Crown Prosecutor for the 1989 trial of Michael Stone, an Ulster Loyalist.

In April 1989, the first of 5 trials for the murder of Corporals Derek Wood and Robert Howes, often referred to as the Corporals killings, was held.

Henry Maguire and Alex Murphy denied a total of nine charges including the assault, causing of grievous bodily harm, false imprisonment and murder of the corporals.

Ronald Appleton, QC, for prosecution said that it was the Crown's case that Maguire and Murphy "were part of a smaller crowd...that were engaged in a joint enterprise to kill".

Initial evidence highlighted Ronald Appleton included bloodstains on the defendants at the time of arrest that matched the soldiers' and fibres found on the two at arrest matched that of the clothes the corporals were wearing.

Ronald Appleton concluded "this defendant had at least been in close contact with the soldiers".

Video footage of the event was obtained from a British Army helicopter allegedly showed that both of the accused were part of a small group including 3 others.

11 witnesses who had been shown the video identified Murphy and Maguire.