Sir David Cozens-Hardy Hirst (31 July 1925 – 31 December 2011) was an English barrister and judge who served as a Lord Justice of Appeal from 1992 to 1999.
[1][2] Hirst did his pupillage in the chambers of Eric Sachs QC at 4 Paper Building, before beginning a general common law practice on the South-Eastern circuit.
[1] In 1953, he was second junior to Neville Faulks QC, who was prosecuting the "pottery conspiracy" case at the Old Bailey, the longest trial in the court's history until then.
In 1961, he apologised to suspected serial killer Dr John Bodkin Adams on behalf of the Daily Mail, which had published a report stating he had been identified as the poisoner of many of his patients.
Minney had written a biography of World War II heroine Violette Szabo, which detailed torture at the hands of the Gestapo, which Foot alleged were the products of author's "prurient imagination".
Cassell had published a book by Irving blaming Broome for the destruction of World War II Arctic convoy PQ 17.
[1][2] Hirst refused a High Court judgeship after his term as chairman of the Bar Council, before changing his mind.
In 1995, he was one of the judges who heard Emma Humphreys' appeal against her conviction for murder, substituting a verdict of manslaughter.
[6] From 2000 to 2010 he chaired the Spoliation Advisory Panel, which advises the British government on claims for cultural property looted during the Nazi era.