Scott Baker
 Scott Baker    (Judge) | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | 10 December 1937 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | Haileybury and Imperial Service College, Brasenose College (Oxford) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Siblings | Michael Baker | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | Joy Baker | ||||||||||||||||||||
UK judge who sat as coroner for the inquests into the deaths of Princess Diana
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Sir Thomas Scott Gillespie Baker (commonly known as Scott Baker) is a retired UK judge.[1] He sat as coroner for the inquests into the deaths of Princess Diana, Henri Paul and Dodi Fayed from 2 October 2007 to 7 April 2008.
Background
Baker was educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College, and studied at Brasenose College (Oxford).
Career
He was called to the bar (qualified to be allowed to argue in court) at the Middle Temple (an association of barristers) in 1961, and practised in a range of legal areas, including family finance cases, and professional negligence. He became a judge in 1976, and was appointed a Queen's Counsel in 1978. He was a member of the Committee that inquired into human fertilisation in 1982 to 1984, chaired by Mary Warnock, which led to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990.[2]
He was appointed as a High Court judge in 1988 (and was styled Mr Justice Scott Baker), receiving the customary knighthood, and allocated to the Family Division. He moved to the Queen's Bench Division in 1993.[2]
He was Presiding Judge of the Wales and Chester Circuit from 1991 to 1995, and a member of the Parole Board from 1999 to 2002. He was the Lead Judge of the Administrative Court from 2000 to 2002.
In 1999, he presided over the trial of Great Western Trains following the Southall rail crash in 1997.[2] He dismissed charges of corporate manslaughter, as there was no identifiable individual in the company who was also guilty of gross negligence, but levied a then-record fine for health and safety offences of £1.5m. His judgment was upheld on appeal.
The same year, Baker presided at the trial of Jonathan Aitken on charges of perjury following the collapse of Aitken's libel suit against The Guardian.
Baker was promoted in 2002, becoming a Lord Justice of Appeal. He was Treasurer of his Inns of Court, the Middle Temple, in 2004.
He sat as coroner for the inquests into the deaths of Princess Diana, Henri Paul and Dodi Fayed from 2 October 2007 to 7 April 2008.[2]
In March 2011, Baker was sworn in as a Justice of the Court of Appeal of Bermuda[2], a position that he held until 2018.
