 He was appointed as a High Court judge in 1965, allocated to the Queen's Bench Division, and received the customary knighthood.He was Presiding Judge on the Northern Circuit from 1970 to 1974.He had a low public profile until he presided at the trial of Jeremy Thorpe in May–June 1979, shortly after the 1979 UK general election on 3 May 1979 - so much so that no press agency could find a photograph of him.