After dispensing justice in Carlisle for 12 years there’s bound to be a book inside the city’s top judge. And as His Honour Judge Paul Batty QC, prepares to head across the Pennines to take up a new position, he suggests this won’t be the last we’ll hear of him and his legal associations.

One of the best pieces of advice he received as a young barrister was as a student in Lincoln’s Inn.

“I attended a lecture when the speaker said ‘in your life in the law you will do all manner of cases – some sad, some happy but some very interesting. Keep a note of at least the happy events and, if you have time, the interesting ones. That will be your personal chronicle, and who knows when you retire you might utilise it’.

“I have done that now for 40 years – so watch this space when I retire.”

Now aged 62 that book may not be too far off – when Judge Batty will be able to give insight into some of the most high profile and complex prosecutions seen in the city. One of the most memorable cases, he says, was the trial of six people charged following the death of Polish factory worker Piotr Kulinski.

Mr Kulinski was stabbed to death outside his Carlisle home in 2012.

Two men were convicted of murder and one women was found guilty of manslaughter. Three other men were also jailed for perverting the course of justice. “The case presented particular difficulties, logistically and evidentially,” says Judge Batty.

“We had simultaneous translation of English into Polish for the benefit of the defendants, and instead of the case lasting 15 or 16 weeks we concluded it in just over six.

“All defendants appealed their convictions and sentences, and all appeals were dismissed.”

Judge Batty arrived at Carlisle, in 2003, following his appointment as a circuit judge. He served two four-year terms as the resident judge at Carlisle Crown Court and is transferring to York where he will take up the same post.

In 2012, he had bestowed upon him the ceremonial title of Honorary Recorder of Carlisle.

He said: “It is really with a mixture of sadness that I am departing but also a sense of pride. I will have been here for 12 years to the day when I depart to go to York.

“I have made some wonderful friendships. By common consent the staff at Carlisle Crown Court are said to be amongst the finest in England.

“I shall miss them enormously, and of course I will miss my professional colleagues – the other judges. In particular, Judge Barbara Forrester, who has been a tremendous friend and supporter through my tenure here at Carlisle.”

During the course of presiding over countless cases, Judge Batty’s comments to defendants have been reported widely.

He has long railed against the scourge of drugs in society and sees his role in sentencing such crimes as important. A sentence is of personal importance to the defendant, but it also has a wider importance for the public generally, he says.

“If it is a particular type of case, in respect of which the message needs to be sent out by the way of a deterrent sentence, then I will spell it out for exactly that reason.”

When sentencing a pair who were part of a conspiracy to flood west Cumbria’s streets with drugs Judge Batty told them they had been involved in a “loathsome trade” for profit. Sentencing them to three and 10 years he told of his concerns regarding cocaine use in west Cumbria and “the corrosive effect it has had on the lives of those who have themselves become addicts”.

Hailing from County Durham, Judge Batty spent two years as a boarder at Carlisle’s Austin Friars. His interest in the legal profession began when his father, Vincent, was a chief of police in the town of Seaham Harbour.

“I used to go with my father to the magistrates’ court as we call it now – it was then called the police court.

“The senior police officer used to open the cases, to prosecute.

“I used to watch my father and watch the defence solicitors. I thought this was wonderful, and that set me on the path,” he says.

Judge Batty read law at Newcastle University before joining London’s Lincoln’s Inn.

When his father became gravely ill, he returned to the North East in 1975. He joined chambers in Newcastle and remained there until his appointment as a circuit judge, having been made a Queen’s Counsel in 1995.

Judge Batty described his wife, Angela, as his “greatest supporter”.

The couple have a daughter, Sarah, who works in London. The impending move to York, he said, was a “new chapter”.

“I am looking forward to it enormously,” he said.

Away from court, Judge Batty spends much of his spare time fishing. “I have a boat that I keep on the Northumberland coast. On alternate weekends in the summer, weather permitting, I fish out in the North Sea for cod and mackerel.

“I find it amazingly relaxing and invigorating.

“When I cast off the mooring ropes, I cast off all the troubles and cares, and out to sea I go,” he said.

Judge Batty will be succeeded at Carlisle by His Honour Judge Peter Davies.