Buy Judge John Deed

Four months after his daughter is killed in a traffic accident, Maurice Hart legally purchases a shotgun and kills the driver who had been acquitted of any criminal responsibility. The defendant refuses to testify in his defense but Judge Deed does his best to ensure a balanced presentation of the evidence. The Lord Chancellor's Department has grown tired of Deed's aggressive behavior and develop a plan to force his resignation. Judge Deed's daughter, Charlie, starts university and falls in with activists and needs both her father's and her grandfather's assistance to get her friend off.
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Judge Deed is presiding over two cases, both of which are particularly challenging. In the first, three men have been charged with drugging and raping a woman they met in a bar. Deed is particularly concerned at the defense counsel's aggressive tactics. In the second, he must sentence a wife beater who has pleaded guilty and where it is apparent that government authorities, including MI5, would like a light sentence. When the judge reviews the evidence - the accused beat his wife with a pipe and poured boiling water over her genitals - he insists on seeing justice done.
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Jo Mills is prosecuting a case of a construction site manager and foreman who are charged with not taking proper precautions when a young 19 year old is killed in an accident on his first day on the job. The accused worked for Mike Briggs, a tyrannical managing director who had no time for health and safety issues and constantly pushed to get more work done. Deed agrees to take on the case and sets out to find a way to make sure the person truly responsible finds himself in the dock. He is up against government forces who think otherwise and who set out to discredit him.
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Roberto Romero is released after serving 8 years of a 12 year sentence and he has only one objective - to seek revenge on Judge Deed who he sees as the person primarily responsible for putting him behind bars. He harasses the judge and his daughter and even poisons his dog. The situation is all the more difficult as the judge's relations with the police have reached a low ebb given that he has refused bail to two police officers charged with beating a youth and with intimidating an eye witness. In other cases, Deed presides over the trial of a one time professional boxer who beat his best friend into a coma when he learns the man and his wife are having an affair and with two litigious brothers who have been in court for years and flatly refuse to resolve their dispute. Written by garykmcd
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Dr. Helena Bellew is charged with murder in the care of an elderly cancer patient after his family learns that the doctor is to inherit the old man's estate. She is accused of administering an overdose of pain killers but the science is not clear cut on the issue. Judge Deed's handling of the case brings him again into conflict with Sir Ian Richardson and the Lord Chancellor's Department. In family court, Judge Deed hears the case of an HIV-positive woman who refuses to allow her child to be tested. The local council takes the child into care as a result. Deed's father is slowly dying and wants to tell him something important but lapses into a coma before he can do so. It's left to Deed's sister to tell him a family secret that affects him greatly.
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Joe Mills is outraged when Judge Deed sentences her client, an 18-year old professional football sensation, to a year in jail for an assault he committed. She subsequently finds herself prosecuting Ali Abdul Moncheri for the murder of a prostitute. There is an witness who saw Moncheri disposing of her body, but the rumor on the street is that the killer was actually his employer, a member of a Gulf State royal family. Deed comes under pressure from the government because of a pending multi-billion aerospace purchase from the country. Sir Ian Rochester suggests that a recently vacated seat on the Court of Appeals may be available to him. When prosecution witnesses conveniently find themselves unable to give evidence, Deed is convinced that the fix is in and works to uncover the truth. Written by garykmcd
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Gary Patterson walks into his local police station and confesses to the recent murder of a young woman. Gary is in his early 20's, but is developmentally disabled and has the mind of a thirteen year-old. He knew the girl quite well and was attracted to her, but his shyness and disability made him feel inadequate. Judge Deed feels the prosecution has a week case and fumes when he learns that they have withheld evidence from the defense. On another front, Deed decides to investigate rumours that a fellow judge may be corrupt. He enlists his daughter Charlie to undertake some research but he is breaching etiquette by engaging in this type activity and is inviting the wrath of the Lord Chancellor's Department and his fellow judges. Written by garykmcd
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Three siblings - Ed, Darina and Wilfred Hay - are charged with hiring someone to murder their abusive father. Appearing before Judge Deed, Ed Hay, a solicitor, acts for himself and his brother and sister in spite of the Judge's recommendation that they seek counsel. In his personal life, Deed renews his relationship with Francesca Rochester, who has now left her husband. She seeks Deed's assistance in having an elderly aunt declared mentally unfit which would allow Francesca to save the publishing business. At the news that Deed is again seeing his wife, Sir Ian Rochester re-doubles his efforts to discredit him and remove him from the bench. Deed's daughter Charlie informs him that she is pregnant and wants a termination, something Deed is dead set against. Written by garykmcd
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Sitting in the Family Division, Deed hears the case of a 15-year old who is refusing a heart transplant because of the use of animals in drug testing. He is only a few weeks away from his 16th birthday when he would have the final say but his parents, the mother in particular, desperately wants him to live. Deed finds the boy mature well beyond his years but as a parent himself, is torn by the choice he must make. In court, Deed presides over the case of two drug addicts who killed a young teenager to steal his newly-acquired mobile phone. Charlie Deed continues her political activism but her family must race to the hospital when they learn that a young woman fitting her description was seriously hurt at a protest. Once again, the Lord Chancellor's Department is out to get Deeds only this time they focus on Jo Mills accusing her of unethical conduct in her relationship with the Judge. Written by garykmcd
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James Brooklands is charged with the death of a woman and her two children whom he struck with his car. Brooklands was using his mobile phone at the time and didn't have a valid driver's license. His barristers now argue that their client has had a complete mental breakdown and is unable to proceed with his defense. Sitting in the Civil Court, Deed finds himself hearing a case where Jo Mills and and his ex-wife Georgina Channing are the opposing barristers. The case involves a brain tumor patient who is suing her cellphone company. The government is very concerned at the effect this could have on industry and Deed finds himself under great pressure to recuse himself. Deed also finds himself having to deal with a new presiding judge, Monty Everard, with whom he has clashed in the past. Everard, he learns, will be presiding at Jo Mills' disciplinary hearing. Written by garykmcd
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Although Jo Mills has been absolved of any accusations of misconduct, Sir Ian Rochester and some of Deed's fellow judges now decide to marginalize both of them. Mills finds herself being taken off certain prosecutions and is subsequently informed by her head of Chambers that the Prosecution Service may drop her entirely. Deed is pressured into giving up the case of James Brooklands, the businessman who killed two young children and their mother with his car. Judge Everard takes on the case and sentences him to time served. A furious Judge Deed publicly accuses Everard and Rochester of misconduct. In court, Deed presides over the case of Jan Dobbs who has been charged with murdering her husband. Her husband was unstable and he had stopped taking his medication but the question is whether she and her son may have had an altogether different motive. Written by garykmcd
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Jo Mills leads for the prosecution and Brian Cantwell for the defense when a British member of parliament, Alan Roxborough, is tried on a charge of attempting to murder his boyfriend with a frying pan. As usual, there is a conspiracy in the background to pervert the course of justice, which may be connected to Roxborough's opposition to certain British arms deals. Meanwhile, Deed goes into therapy and has a brief affair with his therapist. Written by Anonymous
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Judge Deed begins hearing the case of Diana Hulsey, the mobile phone user who is suing her service provider for contributing to a brain tumor she has now developed. The CEO of the telecoms firm is outraged that her court action has gone this far and is pressuring the government and especially the Lord Chancellor's Department, to get Judge Deed under control. He also makes it quite clear that if they cannot do so, he is prepared to take matters into his own hands. When judge Deed finds that someone has put child pornography on his laptop computer, he knows who must be responsible but also realizes that it is exactly the kind of reputation-destroying information that could see him put off the Bench. Written by garykmcd
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Appearing before Judge Deed, Jo Mills, with Charlie Deed as her junior, defends Terry Rogers who has been on the run for 16 years. He escaped from custody before he could tried and is now a reformed man. Once a crackhead who regularly committed crimes to feed his drugs habit, he is now a reformed man and a respected school teacher. At the center of the defense is the fact that two of the four policemen involved in the case have since been convicted of corrupt practices and served time in jail. In her private life, Jo Mills is still struggling with whether she will adopt Michael Hulsey a former client's now orphaned son. Deed recommends against it but Jo seems determined to proceed. Written by garykmcd
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Judge Deed presides over a case of three street gang members who are charged with murdering a rival drug dealer who was starting to sell drugs on their turf. The accused have no respect for the court system, interrupt regularly and refuse to abide by the judge's instructions. When a key witness is killed and members of the jury are threatened, Deed is faced with a dilemma. The government is pushing the concept of trial by judge alone as a means of reducing the cost of the judicial system. All judges, including Deed, are strongly opposed as they see trial by jury as the cornerstone of the British justice system. As such, Deed very much wants to continue the trial with a jury. Jo Mills continues to struggle with the child welfare authorities in her attempts to adopt a former client's now orphaned son, Michael. She gets support from an unexpected quarter. Written by garykmcd
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Judge Deed presides over the murder trial of a prison inmate who killed a fellow prisoner. His defense is that the victim was a known pedophile and he killed him 'in the defense of others' a defense that is normally used in moments of dire emergency or threat. Jo Mills, for the defense, argues that there was a pressing need for the accused to act in the defense of other children that the victim might molest. In a separate case, Deed hears an argument from a woman who wishes to sue the town council for not providing enough information on her adopted son, a very violent teenager who not only raped her daughter, but also is currently before Judge Everard charged with raping his teacher. Jo's life is turned upside down when the adoption authorities advise her of an important change in Michael Hulsey's family situation. Written by garykmcd
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Sir Ian Rochester is again out to get Judge Deed to resign, this time over his indiscretion with a claimant who had appeared before him. While his fellow judges review the case, Deed finds himself lecturing for two weeks at a seminar for prospective judges. Sitting as a recorder, Jo hears the case of an embezzler, Rufus Barron, who illegally acquired over four million pounds from his employer, Sir Tim Lisfield. When Jo seems to be giving too much leeway to the defense, she is threatened and Deed comes to her assistance. When there is evidence that some of the money was used to bribe a Cabinet Minister, the case takes a far more serious tone. Written by garykmcd
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The powers that be continue in their efforts to have Judge Deed removed from the bench. All the more so now that he has suggested an inquiry into allegations made at his previous trial that the Home Secretary accepted a bribe from industrialist Sir Timothy Listfield. This is also tied to his current trial where a young couple, the Peacocks, are suing the owners of a nearby waste disposal plant. Mrs. Peacock has previously had a miscarriage and her daughter was born with severe physical deformities which they blame on the pollutants produced by the plant. Charlie Deed learns that both Listfield and the Home Secretary at one time served on the board of directors of a company linked to the case. Deed thinks his time may have come however when the Government refers his case to both Houses of Parliament seeking his impeachment. Written by garykmcd
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Judge Deed hears the case of a producer and director who are charged with manslaughter after a one contestant kills another in a reality TV show. The prosecution contends that they acted recklessly and engineered conflict in order to get higher ratings. The case generates a good deal of media interest and Deed holds all the journalists present in the cells until the person who took a photo in court with a camera phone hones up to it. Deed is also continuing to push for an inquiry into industrialist Tim Listfield and the Home Secretary, but things take a serious turn when an attempt on Deed's life accidentally affects someone close to him.
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Deed presides over the case of a prison inmate who is charged with killing and cannibalizing his cell mate. Both the prosecution and the defense agree that a plea to manslaughter is appropriate but cannot agree to whether diminished capacity applies. Deed therefore wades into new areas, much to the dismay of the Home Secretary, when he decides to hear evidence to determine the facts of the case. Underlying it all is the behavior of the prison officers involved who knowingly placed the victim, a black man, in the same cell with a known and violent racist. Jo Mills is surprised when Marc Thompson re-appears with son Michael and announces they have re-located to London.
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When a university research laboratory is bombed, Deed finds himself hearing a case of murder against Henry Free, a well-known animal rights activist who had been harassing the professor who was killed. Jo Mills declines to act for the defense given her deteriorating relationship with Deed but Charlie Deed finds herself acting as a junior with Simon Norwalk as her leader. When he is dismissed by Free, Charlie finds herself acting for the defense with the Attorney General prosecuting. The crown's case relies heavily on a witness whose identity cannot be revealed in the public interest. Charlie believes that the witness may have been an agent provocateur but her constant speech making and emotional approach in the courtroom puts her father in the position of perhaps having to report her to the Bar Association.
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Judge Deed must sentence a young offender who has been found guilty of mugging someone for their cellphone. Jo Mills makes a desperate plea for a non-custodial sentence but Deed feels bound by Appeals Court rulings to sentence the young man to jail. When the lad commits suicide, his relationship with Jo reaches the breaking point and she informs him that she is going to marry Mark Thompson. In a drunken rage, Deed foolishly threatens the Home Secretary in his home. In a separate case, Deed hears a request from a young couple for an injunction to force a local hospital to take extraordinary measures to keep their seriously ill child alive. The doctor in the case is Jo's fiancé.
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Deed hears the case of a woman suffering from motor neuron disease. She believes she has been made ill from the microwaves emitted by a cellphone transmission tower that was installed on the roof of her building some years before. The case once again brings him into conflict with the Home Secretary and industrialist Sir Timothy Listfield. The Lord Chancellor's Department want Deed off the case and are considering everything from calling him for jury duty to sending him to Brussels to hear cases at the International War Crimes Tribunal. Deed is also intrigued by Rose Hussein's claim that ammunition with spent uranium used by the British Army in Iraq killed her husband. Even though their relationship is at a low ebb, he convinces Jo Mills to take on her case. Marc Thompson informs Jo that he may have to temporarily return to South Africa to testify in court. She becomes concerned at his increasingly odd and rigid behavior.
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Judge Deed finds himself called for jury duty. He is excused in a case presided over by Monte Everard and where Jo Mills is acting for the defense. He is also excused from a particularly long trial on the request of the defense as he knows too many of the principals. He is finally accepted in the case of Olga Plachek, a nanny who is accused of murder in a baby shaking death. When the jury begins to deliberate, Deed finds himself in the minority wanting to look at the evidence while most would be happy to convict and go home. One man is particularly hateful and unforgiving. As Deed gets information on shaken babies, he learns some particularly negative information about Jo Mills' fiancé, Marc Thompson.
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With Jo's wedding approaching, Deed pleads with her to re-consider. In court he finds himself presiding over a pre-trial hearing where a mother is refusing to allow her daughter to receive the MMR (mumps, measles, rubella) vaccine on the grounds the multiple vaccine is unsafe. It doesn't help that her husband is the principal spokesperson and advocate for child immunization. Appearing before Mrs Justice Morag Hughes, Jo Mills makes an application of habeas corpus on behalf of Rose Hussein who was arrested by the police after she publicly accused the British Army of poisoning innocent Iraqis with weapons made of spent uranium. The government is concerned at the outcomes of both cases and try their best to inhibit Deed's freedom of action and to threaten Hughes with bad publicity over her affair with Hughes.
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Judge Deed goes to the International Court of Justice in Brussels to hear the case of Pvt. David Clark who is accused of murdering 11 Iraqi civilians while on patrol in Basra. Deed doesn't get along with his two co-judges and dislikes their approach to justice. The prosecutor in particularly strident and a thorn in his side. In the UK, Deed hears an appeal along with two other judges of someone who was convicted of inciting hatred against Islam. With threats becoming more serious, all judges find themselves facing tighter security.
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Pvt. Clark's attempt at suicide does not dissuade Deed from the need to understand the trooper's mental state at the time of the shooting in Iraq. Clark however wants to change his plea to guilty. Deed continues to clash with his fellow judges and the prosecutor, but it is seems that the British government is doing little to assist in Pvt. Clark's defense. On the home front, an attempt on the life of his fellow appeals court justice leads to even more security.
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When a depressive soldier commits suicide and takes his son's life along with his own, Jo Mills asks Judge Deed to look into why the soldier's legal aid funding was canceled just before his suit against a pharmaceutical firm before the high court was to be heard. As he looks into the case, Deed begins to suspect that the judge who canceled the legal aid may have been biased. Both Deed and Mills are concerned that their personal relationship may create difficulties. The pharmaceutical firm is conducting extensive surveillance on both of them and the government apparently has little interest in supporting the case.
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Judge Deed finally manages to find both a courtroom and a second judge to review the decision to suspend the dead soldier's legal aid funding. Deed opts to review the funding decision by reviewing the merits of the case against the pharmaceutical company. The government threatens Deed over his relationship with Jo Mills.
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