LCD considers QC's future as recorder

THE LORD Chancellor's Department is considering the future of David Cocks QC as a recorder following complaints made to the Bar Council about his role in the Roger Levitt fraud trial.

The complaint centres on allegations that Cocks, prosecution counsel for the Serious Fraud Office on Levitt and head of chambers at 5 King's Bench Walk, shared responsibility with the SFO and the Attorney General for misleading Parliament over the handling of the 1993 trial.

An LCD spokesman said its judicial appointments section "is aware of complaints to the Bar Council and is currently considering whether David Cocks should sit as a recorder while the Bar Council is investigating the complaints".

Under the Courts Act 1971 the Lord Chancellor has powers to terminate the office of a recorder, he said.

The LCD stressed its consideration of the situation was not a judgement on the validity or otherwise of the complaints against Cocks and it had not yet informed him of its conclusions.

But Cocks said: "If a complaint is made against me, however ill-conceived or unfounded it is, I would not sit until it is satisfactorily resolved."

The trial led to a complaint by Cocks against Levitt's counsel Jonathan Goldberg QC, of 3 Temple Gardens, for allegedly misleading the jury. There were complaints against Cocks by MPs and Levitt's solicitor John Perry, of Davies Goldkorn Mathias, for allegedly misleading the SFO and against the Attorney General for the handling of the case.