FORMER Merseyside judge, William Rayley Wickham, who was Honorary Recorder of Liverpool, has passed away.

Judge Wickham, whose no-nonsense judicial style is legend, lived in Birkenhead with his wife Elizabeth and died on Friday in Arrowe Park Hospital aged 90.

He was a Northern Circuit judge based in the city from 1975 and became the Recorder, in 1992, a post he held for five years until his retirement.

Born in Chorley he served in the Army between 1944 and 1947 before attending Brasenose College, Oxford and becoming a pupil barrister in chambers in London.

He became Chief Magistrate in Aden in 1953, after being recruited by the Colonial Office and where he married.

He was later Acting Chief Justice in Tanganyika until Independence when his job was abolished and though he could have stayed in a different job he returned to this country where he was in chambers in Liverpool's Water Street until his appointment as a circuit judge.

While known by the criminal fraternity as 'Whack'em Wickham' he had a loyal band of followers - nicknamed 'The Wickham Wanderers', comprising about a dozen retired men - who regularly sat in the public gallery in his courtroom and gave their tacit approval to his sentencing.

Among cases he presided over was the Risley Remand Centre riots trial which ended with all 21 defendants being cleared after arguing conditions there were so bad they amounted to false imprisonment.

He was also the judge in the trial of four women who caused more than £1.5m worth of damage to a Hawk jet at the British Aerospace plant at Warton, near Preston.

They claimed they had lawful excuse to disarm the Hawk because they were using reasonable force to prevent a crime and were acquitted.

Judge Wickham was a great believer in the jury system saying: "The overwhelming advantage is the decision is made by ordinary people who come in from outside the system".

Although known for not always agreeing with not guilty verdicts he added: "You have to accept there will be verdicts that are difficult to understand".

Interviewed at the time of his retirement - a ceremony to which his loyal court watchers were invited - Judge Wickham, who enjoyed walking, gardening and opera, remarked: "It's been an interesting life".

He last returned to the QE11 courts in Derby Square for a celebratory lunch with the judges to mark his 90th birthday last year.

Fond tributes will be paid at an eulogy to be delivered at the city's crown court next Thursday, May 4, by Sir David Clarke, who had been in chambers with him and was his successor as Recorder when he retired.