Legal Career
He was called to the Bar at Gray's Inn in 1960. He was a pupil of Denis Cowley at his chambers in Nottingham, and went on to practise a mix of criminal and civil law on the Midland Circuit. He later moved to 2 Crown Office Row in London. He acted for the prosecution in the trial of a Birmingham ammunition factory in 1974, following an explosion which killed six people. The factory was fined £10 - the maximum stipluated by the Explosives Act 1875. He was junior counsel for the Crown in the prosecution of Donald Neilson, the "Black Panther", in 1976 for a series of murders. Smedley became a Recorder in 1972, and he was appointed a Queen's Counsel in 1977.
He spent 3 years in Bermuda from 1984 to 1987, as a partner in a firm of solicitors, after accompanying his ill mother to sunnier climes for her health. He returned to the UK after her death, and became a Circuit Judge at the Old Bailey in July 1987. He presided at the trial of a Canadian artist Rick Gibson and art gallery director Peter Sylveire in 1989, who were found guilty of outraging public decency and fined for making and exhibiting earrings made from human foetuses.
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