Harry Ognall

Sir
Harry Ognall
DL
Born(1934-01-09)January 9, 1934
Salford, Greater Manchester, England, U.K.
DiedApril 13, 2021(2021-04-13) (aged 87)
EducationLeeds Grammar School
Alma materLincoln College, Oxford; University of Virginia School of Law
Occupation(s)Barrister, judge, author
Years active1958–1999
Known forProsecution of Peter Sutcliffe
FatherLeopold Horace Ognall

Sir Harry Henry Ognall, DL (9 January 1934 – 13 April 2021)[1][2] was an English High Court judge, barrister and author. He was well known for his prosecution of Peter Sutcliffe, dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper.

Family and early life

Ognall was born in Salford, Greater Manchester,[3] into a middle-class Jewish family, and grew up in Leeds. Ognall's father was journalist and crime author Leopold Horace Ognall (1908–1979), best known by his pen names of Hartley Howard and Harry Carmichael. Ognall was named Harry Henry after his grandfather, who had died one month before he was born. Ognall's father was born in Canada but grew up in Glasgow, where his grandfather served as provost of Rutherglen.[4] Ognall's great-grandparents, Lazarus Ognall and Rachael Rosenstein, were Russian Jews who emigrated to Glasgow.[5]

Ognall was educated at Leeds Grammar School. In 1953, he went to Lincoln College, Oxford, to read law,[4] and attended the University of Virginia School of Law on scholarship.[6]

Career

Ognall was called to the bar at Gray's Inn in 1958 and took silk in 1973. He was a recorder from 1972 to 1986, when he was appointed to the High Court.[7]

Ognall is best known for his prosecution of Peter Sutcliffe, dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper, for 13 murders in the 1970s and 1980s. As Queen's Counsel for the Crown's prosecution of Sutcliffe, Ognall was strongly opposed to Sutcliffe's defence strategy of claiming mental illness, which the Crown's psychiatric experts had been prepared to support.[8]

As a judge, Ognall presided over the first trial for the murder of Rachel Nickell,[9] in which he ruled that the police had shown "excessive zeal” and had tried to incriminate Stagg by “deceptive conduct of the grossest kind".[10][11]

Ognall also presided over the Lyme Bay kayaking tragedy trial; and the trial of Nigel Cox, the first doctor brought to trial in the UK for practising euthanasia.[12]

Ognall was knighted in March 1986.[13] He retired at the end of 1999.[14] He was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of West Yorkshire in August 2000.[15]

Personal life

In 1977, Ognall married Elizabeth Young in Bradford.[16] He had two stepsons, and three children from a first marriage.[14]

Ognall was portrayed by actor Simon Kunz in 2021 miniseries Deceit, which retold the story of Operation Edzell following the murder of Rachel Nickell.[17]

Bibliography

  • Ognall, Sir Harry (2017). A Life of Crime: The Memoirs of a High Court Judge. William Collins. ISBN 978-0008267469.

References

  1. ^ UK, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878–1960
  2. ^ "Sir Harry Ognall: A Tribute: Someone Proud to be Described as 'A Gorilla from the North'". 14 April 2021. Retrieved 14 April 2021.
  3. ^ England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916–2007
  4. ^ a b Ognall, Sir Harry (2017). A Life of Crime: The Memoirs of a High Court Judge. William Collins. pp. 2–3. ISBN 978-0008267469.
  5. ^ Ontario, Canada, Deaths and Deaths Overseas, 1869-1946
  6. ^ "Harry Ognall". HarperCollins. Archived from the original on 3 July 2018. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
  7. ^ "No. 50402". The London Gazette. 16 January 1986. p. 685.
  8. ^ "Trials of bringing the Ripper to justice". The Yorkshire Post. 22 May 2006. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
  9. ^ Ebisike, Norbert (2008). Offender Profiling in the Courtroom: The Use and Abuse of Expert Witness Testimony. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 16. ISBN 9780313362101. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
  10. ^ Real Crime (27 June 2001). "Real Crime: The Rachel Nickell Story" (TV Documentary). ITV.
  11. ^ "the murder of rachel nickell, the mirror". crime + investigation.
  12. ^ Magnusson, Roger S.; Ballis, Peter Harry (2002). Angels of Death: Exploring the Euthanasia Underground. Yale University Press. p. 25. ISBN 0300094396. Retrieved 3 July 2018. doctor euthanasia Harry Ognall.
  13. ^ "No. 50467". The London Gazette. 21 March 1986. p. 4067.
  14. ^ a b "Sir Harry Ognall, criminal QC then High Court judge who played decisive roles in sensational cases of his era – obituary". The Daily Telegraph. London. 15 April 2021. Retrieved 13 August 2025.
  15. ^ "No. 55933". The London Gazette. 4 August 2000. p. 8619.
  16. ^ England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916–2005
  17. ^ "MDX Performing Arts alumna scripts and produces searing Rachel Nickell case drama, Deceit". Middlesex University. Retrieved 27 March 2022.
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