Peter Openshaw (judge)


Sir Charles Peter Lawford Openshaw, DL, styled The Hon. Mr Justice Openshaw, is an English judge of the High Court, Queen's Bench Division.

Early life

Openshaw was educated at Harrow School and St Catharine's College, Cambridge.

Legal career

Openshaw was called to the bar by the Inner Temple in 1970. On 9 April 1991, he was appointed a Queen's Counsel.
On 16 March 1999, Openshaw was appointed a Circuit Judge. He was appointed the Honorary Recorder of Preston in 1999 and served for seven years.
In September 2005, he was appointed as a High Court Judge and assigned to the Queen's Bench Division. In 2005, he became a member of the Criminal Procedure Rules Committee. He is no longer on the Committee. Between 2008 and 2012, he was a presiding judge of the North Eastern Circuit.
He was made a Bencher of the Inner Temple in 2003.
He sat as the Judge in the Hillsborough criminal trial R v Duckenfield and R v Mackrell at Preston Crown Court between January 2019 and April 2019.

Personal life

Openshaw is married to Dame Caroline Swift. They were sworn in as High Court judges on the same day in October 2005.
He was the son of Judge William Harrison Openshaw, who was murdered on 11 May 1981 by John Smith. John Smith had been sent to borstal for 18 months in 1968 by Judge William Openshaw for stealing. Smith hid in William's garage in Broughton, Lancashire, and stabbed him 12 times. John Smith was convicted of murder in November 1981.

Honours

On 10 May 2000, Openshaw was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for Lancashire. In 2008, he was appointed a lay canon of Blackburn Cathedral.
He was knighted upon being appointed as a high court judge.