Death announced of Sheriff Ian Simpson QC

The death has been announced of Ian Simpson QC, who served 18 years as a sheriff and also sat as a temporary judge before he retired. He was 68.

Ian Christopher Simpson was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1974, and took silk in 2005. He practised in criminal defence work and also in divorce and reparation cases as well as some contract disputes and planning inquiries. Appointed to the shrieval bench at the age of 39, he sat as a sheriff in Airdrie, Dunfermline and Edinburgh between 1988 and 2006, and also as a temporary judge of the High Court in 2004 and 2005.

He retired from the bench after being diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, but turned to writing crime fiction, and had four novels published: Murder on Page One, Murder on the Second Tee, Murder in Court Three. and, last year, The Andrean Project, also a murder mystery.