APPOINTMENT OF ACTING SUPREME COURT JUDGE FOR GRAND TURK

PRESS RELEASE

FROM THE OFFICE OF THE CHIEF JUSTICE

Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands, 4^th November 2024 – Called to the Bar of England and Wales by the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, Mr. Justice Donne practised in Crime as well as Disciplinary and Regulatory law.  His judicial career started in 1999 with appointment as an Assistant Recorder of the Crown Court, followed by appointment as a Recorder in 2000.

Promoted Queen’s Counsel in 2003, Mr. Justice Donne specialised in long and complex fraud trials from the distinguished London criminal chambers of QEB Hollis Whiteman, whilst continuing to prosecute and defend in murder cases. He joined the Serious Fraud Office QC’s panel in 2005 and, in 2011, was appointed Chair of the British Equestrian Federation appeals panel for the 2012 London Olympics.

In 2012 he was appointed a Circuit Judge on the South Eastern Circuit and, in 2014, designated a Class 1 judge authorised to try homicide cases at the Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey) and the inner London Crown Court.  A tutor judge at the Judicial College, he became a Judicial Member of the Parole Board in 2020.

In 2011 Mr. Justice Donne was made a Bencher of the Middle Temple and, later, Director of Middle Temple Advocacy’s New Practitioner Programme.  He is an accredited trainer for the Advocacy Training Council (training judges and advocates in overseas jurisdictions). He was Honorary Treasurer and Executive Council member of the British Academy of Forensic Science.

Commissioned as an officer in the Royal Navy Reserve in 1978, Mr. Justice Donne was awarded the Reserve Decoration (RD) in 1993.

Mr. Justice Donne was sworn in on 1^st November 2024, by Her Excellency the Governor as an acting Supreme Court Judge for Grand Turk.