Justice Simon France retires for health reasons, other judges step up
Friday, 17 March 2023
One of Wellington's most experienced judges is retiring for health reasons.
The Chief Justice announced the retirement of Justice Simon France on Friday.
Justice France was made a judge of the Court of Appeal last year after 17 years as a High Court judge.
In the High Court he presided over some of the Wellington court’s most high profile murder trials including that of Ewen Macdonald who was acquitted in 2012 of having murdered his brother-in-law Scott Guy, and the retrial in 2015 of Mark Lundy for the murder of his wife and daughter.
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More recently he decided that the murder charges against three men accused of killing Upper Hutt woman Lois Tolley in 2016 could not proceed after police extracted a confession from one man that the judge said was not credible.
On Friday, Chief Justice Dame Helen Winkelmann said he had made an outstanding contribution to the judiciary and the law.
Another of Wellington's senior judges, Justice Jill Mallon, has been promoted to the Court of Appeal after nearly 17 years as a judge based at the High Court in Wellington.
She will take up her appointment on Monday.
District Court Judge Andrew Becroft has been made a High Court judge.
The former Principal Youth Court judge and Children's Commissioner will be based in Auckland from May 2.
He graduated from Auckland University in 1981 and in 1986 co-founded the Mangere Community Law Centre.
He was made a District Court Judge in 1996. After five years as Children’s Commissioner ending in 2021 he returned to the District Court bench.