Obituary – Sheriff Frank Middleton

The late Sheriff Frank Middleton was a man of considerable ability and strength of character. He had a keen sense of humour but only he was allowed to display it in his Court. Disliked by many practitioners because of the hard line he took on punctuality – he always started at 10 am and woe-betide latecomers. In this regard, he is sorely missed.

One of the funniest things to occur in his Court concerned the late Bob Turpie. Frank seemed to have it in for him, perhaps because of the time old Bob took over his cases. One always tried not to be behind Turpie. On a memorable occasion Bob was customarily interrupted several times whilst he was pleading on behalf of a client. Suddenly, he bent down, took hold of his briefcase and put it on the table in front of him. With the utmost care he opened the case and produced a Junior Soccer International Cap, which he put on and said, to the surprise of everyone, “I challenge you to six penalties in the Glasgow Green.”  Frank was so gob-smacked that he allowed the challenge to evaporate without comment.

Sheriff Middleton did make legal history in early 1970 when Howard Wilson appeared before him and, through me, tendered pleas of guilty to a raft of monumentally grave charges as had at no time before, or since for that matter, been placed before a sheriff – for sentence – sitting in his own Court.  The charges were the murder by shooting of two police officers, the attempted murder of a further two – all in the execution of their duty – coupled with two armed bank robberies at Linwood and Williamwood.

Wilson, himself an ex-police officer with some ten years’ service, was only recently released from prison. Had it not been for the abolition of the Homicide Act in 1965 Wilson would have faced the gallows. In the event he was sent to the High Court for sentence and was duly given a life sentence by Lord Grant with a recommendation by him that he would serve a minimum period of twenty-five years before release.

In those days, the powers of sentence of a sheriff were a mere two years in prison (now three) and were clearly quite inadequate to combat crimes so utterly horrific.  Nowadays, by Act of Parliament, such serious pleas of guilty would be dealt with in the High Court direct, without the formality of proceeding through that of the sheriff.

He had a long reign as sheriff and was feared and respected by most throughout it – Bob being a notable exception.  Like myself, he disliked ‘whisperers’ and would often interrupt a pleader to say, “That man at the very back of my Court should be able to hear every word uttered by you – there are no secrets.”

Frank was at his very best in jury trials and, indeed, I still use part of his speeches from time to time – with some success. He and I had little in common apart from the fact that we both played left full back for our respective schools – in different decades, of course.

Joseph Beltrami, Glasgow