Jeffrey Blackett (born 20 May 1955) is a British former judge and Royal Navy officer with the rank of Commodore.
He left the issues which had been raised by the prosecution and the defence during the hearing of the Court Martial to the Board in an entirely fair and proper manner.
[3] In a previous high-profile case, Blackett also presided over the retrial in 2013 of SAS Sgt Danny Nightingale.
Sgt Nightingale's first trial in 2012 resulted in a conviction for possession of an illegal weapon and a sentence of 18 months' detention in the Military Corrective Training Centre.
[14] Blackett was an Acting Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate from 1995 to 2000 and also sat as a uniformed judge advocate in Royal Navy courts-martial.
He was the Court Martial Judge in the Sgt Blackman trial which was criticized by the Criminal Cases Review Commission.
He also played for the Royal Navy, Hampshire and the United Services Portsmouth Rugby Football Club.
He was a judicial officer in three Rugby World Cups (2003 - 2011) and officiated in many IRB and ERC hearings.
Blackett was appointed President of the RFU for the 2020-21 season in June 2020 and served for two years in that role because of Covid.