The judge who will decide on Monday whether Lucy Letby will ever be released from prison is well-versed in making big decisions.
In 2017, Mr Justice Goss took the almost unprecedented step of deciding on the guilt of three defendants himself, having dismissed the jurors after they were approached and offered bribes as they left the court building. It was believed to be just the second time a judge had done so.
If, as expected, Goss hands Letby a whole-life sentence, she will become only the third woman alive to be handed such a term. Letby is refusing to attend her sentencing, something Goss, who has no power to compel her to be present, has said he will comment on during her sentencing.
Born James Richard William Goss in 1953, educated at Charterhouse school and then University College, Durham, he was called to the bar in 1975, specialising in criminal law. He became a senior barrister (at the time a QC) in 1997. He began as a recorder (part-time judge) in 1994 and became a full-time circuit judge on the north-east circuit in 2009.
He had presided over several high-profile trials before the Letby case. In 2006, he was the judge in the trial of the killer of seven-year-old Toni-Ann Byfield, who was shot in the back at close range having witnessed the murder of a man she believed to be her father. Goss recommended that Joel Smith serve a minimum of 40 years in jail for the killings.
More recently, Goss presided over the trial of Carl Beech, who was jailed for 18 years for fabricating allegations about a murderous VIP paedophile ring in Westminster, which resulted in a multimillion-pound Scotland Yard inquiry. Beech claimed the gang of abusers included the former prime minister Edward Heath, the D-day veteran Lord Bramall, the former home secretary Leon Brittan, and the ex-Tory MP Harvey Proctor.
Sailesh Mehta, a barrister at Red Lion Chambers who has appeared before Goss, said of him: “As you would expect he has an exceedingly sharp intellect, he also has an acerbic wit.”
The Letby case was challenging for all involved. As is perhaps to be expected in such a long case, there were numerous issues with jurors including illness, family emergencies and urgent medical appointments, which meant the trial ran three months over schedule.
But Goss never expressed irritation in front of the eight women and four men on the jury, even when their deliberations ran into a fifth week, telling them there was “no pressure of time”.
The judge’s only show of displeasure came on day four of the trial when jurors were not in court. He complained that the US website Daily Beast had run a typically inflammatory report – labelling Letby “the Angel of Death” – in breach of the many strict reporting restrictions that the UK press had adhered to.
He complained there was little he could do because it was a US-based website but seethed to the assembled barristers that it was a breach that was “blatant, absolutely blatant … It’s outrageous actually”. As one barrister anonymously told the Guardian, Goss “doesn’t suffer fools gladly”.
But on Friday, as jury deliberations entered their 120th hour, he looked relaxed as he was seen strolling around the courtroom without his traditional wig and gown, chatting to staff and at one point sitting in the seats reserved for Letby’s legal team. Minutes later, shortly after midday, he received a note from the jury that brought an end to one of the longest and most harrowing murder trials in recent memory.
