Sir William Davis, judge whose unflappable wisdom proved invaluable at the Sentencing Council

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Sir William Davis, who has died aged 70, was one of the outstanding criminal judges of his generation and one of very few to progress from the circuit bench to the Court of Appeal.
As Recorder of Birmingham, Bill Davis had earlier been trusted with some of the most heavyweight cases in the country, including those arising from the serious rioting in the city in 2011, described by Davis as a 'wave of lawlessness' which required the imposition of 'severe penalties' to serve as both punishment and deterrent.
Besides being well over six feet tall, Davis was remarkable for his unruffled authority in court, his entirely justified confidence in his judgment and decision-making and his sure-footed approach to the law.
A superb and extraordinarily efficient judge, Davis never allowed his cases to overrun, maintaining complete control and a relentless focus on the relevant – apart from the occasional dry aside. Cases listed in front of him always took less than the time estimate, something only a few of the very best judges achieve – and he achieved it every time without giving the feeling that the cases were rushed.
He was an obvious choice for the High Court bench in 2014, and seven years later he was promoted to the Court of Appeal. There he delivered several judgments of exceptional quality, particularly in sentencing matters, and was greatly valued by his fellow appeal judges as a source of wisdom, experience, good sense and humour – one of them recalled him as 'very, very funny'.
Having been a judicial member of the Sentencing Council from 2012 to 2015, he became chairman in 2022. His customary calmness and measured determination was evident earlier this year during the council's much publicised dispute with the government about the proposed inclusion of ethnic, cultural and faith minority groups as a specific cohort in the list of those for whom a pre-sentence report would normally be deemed necessary.
The issue arose after the widely reported remarks in the House of Commons by the shadow Lord Chancellor Robert Jenrick. He described the council's updated guidelines as biased against 'straight white men', and amounting to a 'double standard' and a 'two-tier approach to sentencing'. Other commentators subsequently suggested that the guidelines would result in a 'get-out-of-jail-free card' for certain offenders.
Perhaps pressured by all this, the Lord Chancellor Shabana Mahmood asked Lord Justice Davis to remove the entire list of cohorts – which also included sole carers of young children and pregnant offenders – from the new sentencing guidelines so as to avoid 'impermissible differential treatment'.
Davis declined to do this, explaining in a five-page letter to the Lord Chancellor that the updated guidance – designed to address the recognised disparity in sentencing outcomes for ethnic minorities – had followed extensive consultation; the pre-sentence report was designed, he said, to inform the judge or magistrate as to the 'nature and causes of the offender's behaviour' and it would not 'determine the sentence'. Davis added that 'if we had been satisfied that courts currently requested a pre-sentence report wherever and whenever one was necessary, we may not have included a list of cohorts.'
Davis stood his ground in subsequent exchanges, telling Shabana Mahmood that sentencing guidance must not be 'dictated' to judges by ministers and adding that the Sentencing Council preserved the 'critical' position of the independent judiciary in relation to sentencing.
'In criminal proceedings where the offender is the subject of prosecution by the state,' he said, 'the state should not determine the sentence imposed by an individual offender. If sentencing guidelines of whatever kind were to be dictated in any way by ministers of the Crown, this principle would be breached.'
It was only when the Lord Chancellor persisted with a threat to bring in emergency legislation to overrule the council's updated guidelines that Davis agreed to suspend the implementation of the changes, albeit adding that the council still deemed the new guidance 'necessary and appropriate'.
William Easthope Davis was born on June 20 1954. He grew up initially at Bridlington in the East Riding of Yorkshire and later Leicester, where his father, Professor Ralph Davis, taught economic history at the university. His mother Dorothy, née Easthope, was a Leicestershire county councillor.
From Wyggeston Boys' School (the alma mater of Sir David Attenborough) he went aged 17 to Queen Mary College, London, to read law, graduating in 1974. Called to the Bar by Inner Temple in 1975, he did his pupillage in London before being taken on as a tenant at 7 Fountain Court (later St Philips Chambers) in Birmingham.
As a junior barrister he practised in personal injury and criminal cases on the Midland and Oxford Circuit. From the outset he was enviably unflappable and never lost sleep due to the stresses and strains of a case. He also had a very sharp legal mind, enabling him to quickly identify the main issues in each instance.
After taking Silk in 1998 he concentrated on crime, mainly acting for the prosecution but also accepting a few briefs for the defence. As head of chambers from 2004 to 2008, he was noted for his selfless willingness to help colleagues, frequently putting aside whatever he was doing to focus completely on whatever was being asked of him.
A Recorder since 1995, he was appointed a Circuit Judge in 2008. The next year he became a Senior Circuit Judge and Resident Judge at Birmingham Crown Court, where he remained until he became a Judge of the High Court, Queen's Bench Division. From 2016 to 2019 he was Presiding Judge of the Northern Circuit, where he was very popular.
Bill Davis put his dry wit to good use when creating the scenarios used at the Judicial College, where he was director of training from 2014 to 2019. In his role as a Privy Counsellor he attended the accession council of King Charles III in 2022.
Away from the law, Davis was a passionate supporter of Aston Villa FC club and a very amusing after-dinner speaker. At legal gatherings he had an excellent line in ruthlessly funny sketches about colleagues which invariably brought the house down. But he was a far from loud character off stage and tended to keep his views on any given topic to himself unless pressed for them.
He greatly enjoyed writing and performing in amateur dramatic sketches. He appeared at theatres in Leamington and Kenilworth, including playing the role of Basil Fawlty, to whom some felt he bore a striking resemblance.
His wife Ginny, née Smith, whom he married in 1990, is a playwright and performer, and for three consecutive years Davis took August off to support her shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, appearing as an actor in one and serving as stagehand and handing out flyers for the others.
He also appeared in a performance at the Old Bailey in Court Number One, playing a judge in a production of Learned Friends, also written by and starring his wife. 'This isn't acting,' he told a journalist. 'I just come in and do what I do on the bench.'
Their daughter Rosie, meanwhile, played Pip in The Archers for several years when she was younger, and their son Ralph is a well-regarded professional actor who has appeared in a number of leading roles, including at Stratford and at the Globe.
Sir William Davis, born June 20 1954, died June 7 2025
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