{{Short description|English jurist (1934–2021)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = Sir<!--Not an OVERLINK or NOTBROKEN violation when link is already piped--> | name = Harry Ognall | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|DL|size=100}} | image = Harry_Ognall.jpg | image_upright = 0.8 | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1934|01|09}} | birth_place = Salford, Greater Manchester, England, U.K. | death_date = {{Death date and age|2021|04|13|1934|01|09}} | death_place = | other_names = | occupation = Barrister, judge, author | years_active = 1958–1999 | known_for = Prosecution of Peter Sutcliffe | notable_works = | education = Leeds Grammar School | alma_mater = Lincoln College, Oxford; University of Virginia School of Law | father = Leopold Horace Ognall }} '''Sir Harry Henry Ognall''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|DL|size=100}} (9 January 1934{{spnd}}13 April 2021)<ref>''UK, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878–1960''</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.civillitigationbrief.com/2021/04/14/sir-harry-ognall-a-tribute-someone-proud-to-be-described-as-a-gorilla-from-the-north/|title=Sir Harry Ognall: A Tribute: Someone Proud to be Described as 'A Gorilla from the North'|date=14 April 2021|access-date=14 April 2021}}</ref> was an English High Court judge, barrister and author. He was well known for his prosecution of Peter Sutcliffe, dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper.
==Family and early life== Ognall was born in Salford, Greater Manchester,<ref>''England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916–2007''</ref> into a middle-class Jewish family, and grew up in Leeds. Ognall's father was journalist and crime author Leopold Horace Ognall (1908–1979), best known by his pen names of Hartley Howard and Harry Carmichael. Ognall was named Harry Henry after his grandfather, who had died one month before he was born. Ognall's father was born in Canada but grew up in Glasgow, where his grandfather served as provost of Rutherglen.<ref name="auto">{{cite book |last=Ognall |first=Sir Harry |date=2017 |title=A Life of Crime: The Memoirs of a High Court Judge |pages=2–3 |publisher=William Collins |isbn=978-0008267469 }}</ref> Ognall's great-grandparents, Lazarus Ognall and Rachael Rosenstein, were Russian Jews who emigrated to Glasgow.<ref>''Ontario, Canada, Deaths and Deaths Overseas, 1869-1946''</ref>
Ognall was educated at Leeds Grammar School. In 1953, he went to Lincoln College, Oxford, to read law,<ref name="auto"/> and attended the University of Virginia School of Law on scholarship.<ref name="hcbio">{{cite news |title=Harry Ognall |url=https://www.harpercollins.com/author/cr-129431/harry-ognall/ |accessdate=3 July 2018 |publisher=HarperCollins |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180703163947/https://www.harpercollins.com/author/cr-129431/harry-ognall/ |archivedate=3 July 2018}}</ref>
==Career== Ognall was called to the bar at Gray's Inn in 1958 and took silk in 1973. He was a recorder from 1972 to 1986, when he was appointed to the High Court.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=50402 |date=16 January 1986 |page=685 }}</ref>
Ognall is best known for his prosecution of Peter Sutcliffe, dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper, for 13 murders in the 1970s and 1980s. As Queen's Counsel for the Crown's prosecution of Sutcliffe, Ognall was strongly opposed to Sutcliffe's defence strategy of claiming mental illness, which the Crown's psychiatric experts had been prepared to support.<ref>{{cite news |title=Trials of bringing the Ripper to justice |url=https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/opinion/trials-of-bringing-the-ripper-to-justice-1-2373619 |accessdate=3 July 2018 |work=The Yorkshire Post |date=22 May 2006 |language=en}}</ref>
As a judge, Ognall presided over the first trial for the murder of Rachel Nickell,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ebisike |first1=Norbert |title=Offender Profiling in the Courtroom: The Use and Abuse of Expert Witness Testimony |date=2008 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=9780313362101 |page=16 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RKRayTqDoaQC&q=Colin+Stagg+murder+trial+Harry+Ognall&pg=PA16 |accessdate=3 July 2018 |language=en}}</ref> in which he ruled that the police had shown "excessive zeal” and had tried to incriminate the accused, Colin Stagg (who was in fact innocent) by “deceptive conduct of the grossest kind".<ref name="Real Crime doc 1">{{cite web |author1=Real Crime |author1-link=Real Crime |title=Real Crime: The Rachel Nickell Story |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okTW9-MqsqM |publisher=ITV |format=TV Documentary |date=27 June 2001}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=the murder of rachel nickell, the mirror |url=https://www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/article/the-murder-of-rachel-nickell |website=crime + investigation}}</ref>
Ognall also presided over the Lyme Bay kayaking tragedy trial; and the trial of Nigel Cox, the first doctor brought to trial in the UK for practising euthanasia.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Magnusson |first1=Roger S. |last2=Ballis |first2=Peter Harry |title=Angels of Death: Exploring the Euthanasia Underground |date=2002 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=0300094396 |page=[https://archive.org/details/angelsofdeathexp0000magn/page/25 25] |url=https://archive.org/details/angelsofdeathexp0000magn |url-access=registration |quote=doctor euthanasia Harry Ognall. |accessdate=3 July 2018 |language=en}}</ref>
Ognall was knighted in March 1986.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=50467 |date=21 March 1986 |page= 4067 }}</ref> He retired at the end of 1999.<ref name=telegraph/> He was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of West Yorkshire in August 2000.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=55933 |date=4 August 2000 |page= 8619 }}</ref>
==Personal life== In 1977, Ognall married Elizabeth Young in Bradford.<ref>''England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916–2005''</ref> He had two stepsons, and three children from a first marriage.<ref name=telegraph>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2021/04/15/sir-harry-ognall-criminal-qc-high-court-judge-played-decisive/ |title=Sir Harry Ognall, criminal QC then High Court judge who played decisive roles in sensational cases of his era – obituary |website=The Daily Telegraph |url-access=limited |location=London |date=15 April 2021 |accessdate=13 August 2025}}</ref>
Ognall was portrayed by actor Simon Kunz in 2021 miniseries ''Deceit'', which retold the story of Operation Edzell following the murder of Rachel Nickell.<ref>{{cite web |title=MDX Performing Arts alumna scripts and produces searing Rachel Nickell case drama, Deceit |url=https://www.mdx.ac.uk/news/2021/08/deceit-true-crime-emilia-di-girolamo |website=Middlesex University |access-date=27 March 2022}}</ref>
==Bibliography== *{{cite book |last=Ognall |first=Sir Harry |date=2017 |title=A Life of Crime: The Memoirs of a High Court Judge |publisher=William Collins |isbn=978-0008267469 }}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{IMDb name|nm3013464}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ognall, Harry}} Category:1934 births Category:2021 deaths Category:20th-century English judges Category:20th-century English Jews Category:21st-century English Jews Category:21st-century English memoirists Category:English people of Russian-Jewish descent Category:People from Salford Category:University of Virginia School of Law alumni Category:People educated at Leeds Grammar School Category:Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford Category:Members of Gray's Inn Category:Knights Bachelor Category:Queen's Bench Division judges Category:English barristers Category:Deputy lieutenants of West Yorkshire Category:English people of Canadian descent