ALTHOUGH there was no script for the JEP’s first interview with Robert MacRae since he became Jersey’s new Bailiff, there were plenty of topics in scope. So it was good to have more than an hour with the man appointed as the civic head of Jersey, the Island’s chief judge and presiding officer of the States Assembly.
Jury trials, the move to allow cameras in court, keeping politicians in order, spearheading a range of ceremonial events, outside interests… there was lots on the list. Even before considering his hailing from the same part of south-east England as his interviewer, and ownership of a life-sized Dalek.
Surrey seemed like a suitable ice-breaker, although that function isn’t really necessary for any interview preceded by a photographic shoot with the inimitable David Ferguson.
Mr MacRae was born at Redhill General Hospital in March 1968, with his family living in the nearby east Surrey village of South Nutfield and subsequently moving to Jersey when he was eight years old.
The new appointee was a little older than his predecessor Sir Michael Birt when the 2009 to 2015 incumbent moved to the Island, the duo being the only Bailiffs of modern times not to be born in Jersey.
The “modern times” rider is required as there were other appointments back in the day, as Mr MacRae shared at a dinner for the Spain’s ambassador to the UK after gleaning the information in a history book.
A “particularly disreputable” man from England was appointed by notorious governor Sir Hugh Vaughan in the 1520s, he explained, with the Bailiff’s reputation hitting rock-bottom after he agreed to sell a quantity of corn to some Spanish traders for £40 – around £25,000 in today’s money – only to renege on the deal and end up being pursued back to Jersey by the irate Iberians.
“He duly hid in Mont Orgueil, but the Spanish didn’t want to leave empty-handed, so they kidnapped the Dean and demanded £40, which the Dean paid assuming the Bailiff would reimburse him, which he refused to do.
“And I said to the Spanish ambassador, there are two lessons we draw from this: firstly, you mustn’t mess with a Spaniard; and secondly, I probably owe the Dean £25,000.”
The newly-arrived youngster enrolled at La Moye Primary, and hopes that he may return to the St Brelade school to update them about what he’s been up to since moving on to Victoria College in the late 1970s.
“I called the school recently and spoke to the secretary about possibly visiting,” he said. “I asked if she perhaps wanted to talk to the headteacher about it, and she said, ‘no, I’ll talk to the school council’ – I thought it was marvellous that the children would decide whether I go to La Moye, and in what context.”
After gaining a law degree at Exeter University in 1990, Mr MacRae was a practising lawyer in the south-west of England for just over a decade before returning to Jersey in 2001 and eventually being appointed Attorney General in 2015. He served five years in this role and a similar span as Deputy Bailiff before taking on his new role in the wake of the retirement of Sir Timothy Le Cocq.
Mr MacRae is proud of reforms brought in during his time as AG that saw a new Sexual Offences Law that enshrined greater protection for victims, followed by the 2018 Criminal Procedure Law that modernised several antiquated court practices.
“As [former Bailiff and AG] Philip Bailhache kindly said when he made a speech during the debate on that law, Attorneys General had been trying to bring about reform for over 50 years – the old law was from 1864, it was in French, and it was woefully out-of-date in all sorts of ways,” he said.
“For example, this has almost slipped into history now, but if a jury couldn’t agree on its verdict, they would go up to the Bailiff, one by one and whisper their verdicts in his ear, which was embarrassing for them, and very unsatisfactory all round.”
Having been sworn in on 24 October in front of a packed Royal Court audience that included both his parents, Mr MacRae has wasted little time in embarking on some changes to the judicial system, and within six weeks the Island saw cameras in court for the first time.
The speed was in sharp contrast with the UK, where proposals put forward by the Ministry of Justice in 2013 weren’t enacted until 2022.
“It’s only for sentencing cases, so it will never be trials, so victims and witnesses won’t be identified and it won’t ever infringe the safeguards that have been put in place by statute to preserve the anonymity of victims in all sex cases and children in all cases,” he explained.
“The objective is to enable people who aren’t in court, the public at large, to fully understand the reasons for decisions made by the court and to promote greater transparency in terms of people’s understanding of those reasons, and also to reinforce public confidence in the judiciary and, of course, the Jurats who determine sentence in these cases.”
The move extends the concept of open justice in which, the Bailiff argued, Jersey is already ahead of the UK in some important areas,
“For every Royal Court sentencing case, the reasons are published on the Jersey Law website, as with all civil cases, unless they are family cases, all commercial cases, trust cases, contract cases, and Court of Appeal cases are published,” he said. “That doesn’t happen in the Crown Court in England at all – those decisions are rarely, if ever, published,”
Another ambition is to develop the work of the Jersey Family Justice Council, which was launched a year ago.
“The objective is to ensure that all the professionals, whether it’s social workers, people in the children’s service, judges, advocates, guardians, expert witnesses all work better together to deliver justice for families and children, in particularly children involved in divorce cases or care proceedings,” he said.
“Linked to that, I think that we need to do better to ensure we list cases involving children and young people a little more quickly.
“I’m proud of the way that our court systems do operate – we came out from Covid effectively unscathed, because we did so much work to keep the courts going, whereas in [UK] Crown Courts they are listing trials for 2029 – it’s hard to believe.
“We are scheduling trials for a year ahead, at most, but even so, we can always do better, particularly in cases involving children.”
The long delays in the UK are one reason why justice secretary David Lammy has announced the decision to restrict jury trials to cases with a likely sentence of three years or more for defendants found guilty. Might Jersey follow suit?
Mr MacRae said: “I don’t want to comment on how another jurisdiction operates its system – I did spend many years conducting jury trials in England and Wales, so I’m very familiar with the system over there, and our system [in Jersey] is similar.
“I think there are particular sorts of cases such as murder, serious assault and allegations of serious sex offences that are well tried by juries.
“Speaking for myself, I wouldn’t want there to be any significant inroads in the rights to jury trial in Jersey – I think it’s valuable.”
It’s a big contrast between the Bailiff’s judicial responsibilities and his role as president of the States Assembly.
“It’s a wholly different experience,” he admitted. “When you enter the States Chamber, you leave the fact that you’re a Royal Court judge at the door.
“You still have the judicial experience which will enable you to interpret standing orders and make decisions in relation to difficult points of order, but in the Chamber you are simply an independent and impartial chair and it’s the Members who make decisions, it’s the Members who make the laws, and your role is simply to share their discussions.”
In just over five months time, the new Bailiff will speak at Liberation Day for the first time, and he acknowledged the importance of the event for the Island.
“It’s the fact that people from all backgrounds who’ve made Jersey their home want to participate in those events that makes them so special,” he said. “Events like Liberation Day are for everyone – I know it’s recently been [officially] declared to be our national day, but it has been that for a long time now, and I think that will continue, even as the immediacy of the events slips into slips into history.”
Paying tribute to the small but efficient team in the Bailiff’s Chambers for the smooth transition to his new role, Mr MacRae admitted some things had changed, including being recognised in the street more often.
“I was told by Sir Timothy [Le Cocq] that people you don’t know stop you in the street and say hello – and they do, and it’s rather wonderful, actually,” he said.
Outside of work, Mr MacRae has five children, ranging in age from four to 23, and until recently a part of daily life for him and his partner Chantelle involved walking their dog, Buddy. Sadly the beloved golden retriever died just weeks after he became Bailiff, and at the time of the interview there were no confirmed plans to replace him.
Getting away from it all can often involve sea-swimming, whatever the time of year, although he admitted it is approaching the point where it’s necessary to consider donning a wetsuit in order to survive the coldest months.
“I started about five years ago, and then a bit more seriously, having a proper swim, about two-and-a-half years ago,” he said. “I go every Sunday, and try to swim once or twice a week all year round, and then just about every day in the summer.
“It’s a lovely thing to do, and I do fervently believe it stops you getting colds, although having said that I’ll be probably sneezing for the next year,”
The lack of a script for the interview certainly didn’t faze the Bailiff, partly because his role is for a large part unscripted.
“Every day really is different – you couldn’t possibly get bored of being Bailiff of Jersey, or indeed, any of the other crown jobs, because they’re so varied,” he reflected.
If anything, it may have been the interviewer who was more affected by the lack of script, completely forgetting to return to the pressing matter of how the Island’s civic head came to own an artefact from Doctor Who. That will need to be added to the list for next time…
