When details emerged of how the Iraqi hotel receptionist Baha Mousa had been violently restrained and beaten to death in British military custody in 2003, it was the appeal court judge Sir William Gage who was the natural choice to chair the public inquiry.
Trusted with high profile trials, Gage, who has died aged 85, was renowned for his legal thoroughness and composed demeanour. Furthermore he had a military background, having completed national service as a lieutenant in the Irish Guards.
For two and a half years, starting in 2008, he sat alone listening to contradictory evidence about mistreatment of prisoners and producing a devastating, 1,400-page-long report that exposed the inadequacies of British military culture and condemned its “loss of discipline and a lack of moral courage”.
Praised for being “rigorous and robust”, Gage highlighted the continued use of interrogation techniques that had been banned in 1972 following earlier inquiries into the abuse of suspects interned during Northern Ireland’s Troubles.
Several techniques – including subjecting detainees to hooding, stress positions and sleep deprivation – were nonetheless exploited by soldiers of the 1st Battalion Queen’s Lancashire Regiment for what was politely termed “conditioning” – preparing suspects for questioning. Mousa was found to have suffered at least 93 injuries, including fractured ribs and a broken nose.
Gage’s painstaking investigation did not uncover a policy of systematic abuse but identified individuals and exposed their roles in the events leading up to Mousa’s death. His report was forthright in its condemnation, describing how British soldiers inflicted “violent and cowardly” assaults on Iraqi civilians and subjected them to “gratuitous” kickings and beatings.
Witnesses had been granted immunity from prosecution based on their evidence to the hearings. This, Gage explained in his report, was to break down the “closing of ranks” that had frustrated earlier court martial trials.
Gage was born in Surbiton, Surrey, the son of Elinor (nee Martyn) and Conolly Gage. His father was a circuit court judge and Ulster Unionist MP for South Belfast between 1945 and 1952.
Bill followed his father in going to first Repton school, in Derbyshire, and then Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where initially he studied history but later switched to law. He spent two years doing national service in the army, and taught history at a school in south London briefly before joining what were then his father’s chambers at 2 Harcourt Buildings in the Inner Temple – now Henderson Chambers.
In 1962, he married Penny Groves and the following year was called to the Bar. Appointed a QC in 1982, Gage developed a niche practice defending those accused of white-collar crime. His most successful case involved the 1989 acquittal of Kenneth Grob, a Lloyd’s underwriter, who faced 17 theft charges.
He also defended Dr Ann Dally, who was disciplined by the General Medical Council for prescribing controlled drugs to heroin addicts. The main charge against her was dismissed. In a book about her experience Dally later remarked: “I liked William Gage immediately. He could be comforting and abrasive at the same time, an interesting combination.”
Gage first joined the bench in 1985, sitting occasionally as a recorder. In 1993, he became a high court judge and was knighted. He was promoted in 2004 to the court of appeal, on which he remained for four years.
His criminal law experience resulted in him being selected to hear two of the most notorious trials of the era: the case against Siôn Jenkins, a deputy headteacher who was jailed in 1998 for murdering his teenage foster daughter, Billie-Jo, though formally acquitted in 2006 after two retrials, and that against Barry George for the murder of the television presenter Jill Dando.
As trial judge at the Old Bailey, Gage found himself under intense media scrutiny. George was charged with the murder of Dando, a presenter on BBC Crimewatch, who was shot dead outside her home in Fulham, west London, in 1999. The case resulted in George being sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001. That conviction was subsequently quashed by the court of appeal in 2007 and George was acquitted after a retrial the following year.
The conviction was overturned on the basis of disputed identification evidence and the reliability of forensic tests. Gage was criticised during the appeal for not halting the jury trial because of the paucity of evidence but the fairness of his summing up speech was resolutely defended by the crown – a stance that brought him relief.
In his private life, Gage adored country pursuits. Having first settled in Ladbroke Grove, west London, the family moved to Buckinghamshire in the late 1980s. He was keen on shooting, fishing and golf. Among the household’s pets was a parrot which often sat on his shoulders as he watched television and nuzzled his ear. On one occasion a caller was informed that Gage was unable to come to the phone because he was “washing the parrot”.
In later years, Gage joined several boards and tribunals including the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board, the Parole Board and the appeals board of the British Horseracing Authority. He was also a Surveillance Commissioner (2009-15), overseeing the conduct of the security services.
A devout Christian, he was chancellor of the Anglican diocese of Coventry – a post previously held by his father.
He is survived by Penny and their three sons, Marcus, Timothy and Hugh.
“He kept on being given difficult cases because he was widely respected,” recalled his friend and chambers colleague Roger Henderson KC. “The term ‘safe pair of hands’ is often seen as a slight. In Bill’s case, it was because he was the safest pair of hands. His work was inspiring.”
• William Marcus Gage, barrister and judge, born 22 April 1938; died 13 September 2023
