He defended the Krays killer Nielsen and hasn’t quit as a lawyer at the And mass any wish to age of 85
FORMER BURTON MP MARKING HIS 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF
HE may have long parted from his old job as Burton’s MP, but in one respect life is fairly similar in 2022 for Sir Ivan Lawrence.
Just as did when he was the town’s representative at Westminster, the veteran defence barrister is being kept busy with his work, with the fact that he is now 85 seemingly not deterring him from carrying on.
This week, in which he marked 60 years since he was called to the Bar, Sir Ivan spoke to The Times about his career and explained why he continued to work. Referring to the deaths of his wife, Gloria, in 2016, three years after their daughter, who was a criminal barrister, he said: “I haven’t got anybody to rush home to, so I might as well carry on doing the profession I love.”
With this milestone in his career, it is timely to take a look back at some of his notorious clients and how he came to combine the roles of MP and barrister, something he talked about to the Burton Mail in December 1983.
The answer to achieving success in both, according to Sir Ivan, was hard work and a desire to spend up to 18 hours a day – every day – at work. Critics at the time were quick to question how the town’s MP could carry out his dual role, especially when the court cases Sir Ivan worked on remain some of the highest profile ones in history.
Sir Ivan was born in Brighton in 1936, the only child of parents of Russian-romanian Jewish descent. His father was an electrician and his mother a secretary.
A grammar-school boy, he enjoyed reading books about notable British trials and thought law “sounded exciting”.
As a law student at Oxford, Sir Ivan had his sights set on a full-time legal career but admitted that, even in those early days, he had an interest in politics. He was called to the Bar in 1962 and was first elected as Burton’s MP in 1974, succeeding fellow Conservative John Jennings.
But why did he want to defend some of the worst villains in society? Contrary to popular opinion, he was not appointed to do such jobs but his clients instead came to him – directly or through their solicitors.
He told the Mail: “It is necessary to defend even the worst people in our society. That is the glory of British justice that we all have the right to be defended and make the best of their cases so that when the jury decides it does so on all the information available.
“It is therefore less likely that mistakes will occur and also it is done in full glare of publicity so justice can be seen to be done.
“If one were to say of a terrible murderer that everyone knew he did it and he is just taken away without a trial it wouldn’t be long before people were saying that they had taken the wrong man away.”
Defending his choice to continue working as a barrister while defend
ing the interests of Burton constituents as an MP, Sir Ivan said: “It is interesting that firstly anybody who does another job part-time is open to the same criticism from people who know nothing at all about the workings of the system.
“It’s just the same as a lawyer and being in the public eye, it comes more to the attention of the public.
“The question is, can you do the two jobs properly? And the answer in my case is, yes – I hope.
“Lastly, you have to understand that being a practising barrister is not a nine to five job every day.
“I take a few cases a year, mostly in the vacations when Parliament isn’t sitting.
“On occasions when a case is going on while Parliament is sitting,
I don’t do less political work – I just have to work harder during the day.”
The close proximity of the courtroom to Parliament was also a bonus to Sir Ivan, who could spend until 4.15pm at court and then from 4.30pm until midnight at the House of Commons.
At the time Sir Ivan was heavily criticised through the Burton Mail’s letters page with many claiming that while the trial of Dennis Nilsen was taking place, he would not be able to represent the people of Burton to his full capacity.
In his defence, Sir Ivan produced his diary which showed that in one seven-day week, he was still able to attend eight Conservative policy committee meetings, table several questions including one oral question to the Home Secretary, attend an Amnesty International briefing on human rights, hold a four-hour constituency surgery in Burton, hold a meeting with prominent Muslim groups in the area and attend executive council meetings of both the Burton constituency party and speak at a trade union meeting.
Also in the same week he visited a Branston Scout group, a Winshill youth club and travelled back to London for personal meetings with Home Secretary Leon Brittan before writing around 150 letters to constituents.
All of this was done in a week where he spent most days in the courtroom defending Nilsen, who was responsible for the murders of at least 12 young men between 1978 and 1983.
Nilsen died in 2018, aged 72.
Sir Ivan said: “Such criticism is totally ignorant of the work of an MP and at its highest is just politically motivated criticism. The people who wrote to the Burton Mail might
I don’t like the word workaholic – I’m not sick, as the word suggests.
Sir Ivan speaking in 1983
not be able to do two jobs at once because they may not be prepared to work for 16 to 18 hours a day - but I am. Generally, though, criticism along these lines is very small.
“Most people wonder how I find the time to do so much and I might point out that since I became MP for Burton I have helped one in three families in the constituency.
“I don’t like the word workaholic – I am not sick, as the word suggests, I am not suffering from any illness. I am just a dedicated worker for my constituents. The trouble is finding time to relax but I am happiest when I am under pressure working for my constituents.
“The recent criticism hasn’t hurt me, you have to be pretty thickskinned as an MP but that is not to
say that a thick-skinned person can be without feelings.” Sir Ivan added: “I can assure the people of Burton and district that, to me, my constituents will always come first.”
Sir Ivan held the Burton seat until May 1997 when he lost to Labour’s Janet Dean. As many people will know, he also represented the Kray twins, a case he talked about in his interview with The Times. In those days, he said, barristers were not encouraged to speak to their clients much.
“We just looked at the evidence to see if it sustained the charge,” he told the newspaper.
After the notorious siblings had been sent down to the cells after being convicted for the murders of Jack “the Hat” Mcvitie and George
Cornell, Ronnie Kray thanked him.
“We’ll keep our fingers crossed for you in Peckham [where he was standing for election],” he said, adding: “So that you can become home secretary — and let us out early.”
Sir Lawrence later told what he thought was an amusing anecdote to Margaret Thatcher when she was prime minister. But she did not see the funny side of it and did not make him home secretary.
He talked more about the Nielsen case when it was made into an ITV drama starring David Tennant as the killer. In the series, Sir Ivan was portrayed in the courtroom scenes by actor Pip Torrins, who has been in films such as The Danish Girl, The Iron Lady and Stars Wars: The Force Awakens.
Sir Ivan told the Mail at the time: “He didn’t look like me, didn’t sound like me and didn’t ask the same questions I asked,” Sir Ivan said. However, the former MP generally had high praise for the series, saying: “It was very good. “A lot of people have watched it and have been impressed with David Tennant. He was very good.
“It has captured a lot of people’s views and I’ll be taking part in a documentary on him later.”
The series starts when body parts are found to be blocking at drain outside Nilsen’s flat.
He is subsequently arrested and immediately admits to killing 15 men after he leads officers to several bodies still stored in his flat.
The three-part series then follows the police’s journey in finding out the identities of his victims, despite the fact he barely knew any of their names.
He was later found guilty of the murder of six men and two counts of attempted murder.
The remains of at least 12 were discovered in a burn pile in his garden, but six were never identified.
His defence team argued that Nilsen suffered from diminished responsibility, rendering him incapable of forming the intention to commit murder, and should therefore be convicted only of manslaughter. He denied murder at his trial.
Sir Ivan said: “The situation was about whether it was murder or diminished responsibility.
“If, with diminished responsibility, there is that intent to kill which is modified as a measure of craziness, then it would be manslaughter. The real issue is a legal one on whether the jury was going to say this man was sane and had intended to kill or he was ‘loopy loo.’
“It didn’t much matter whether he was convicted of manslaughter or murder, as he was going to go to prison for the rest of his life.”
Sir Ivan became a recorder in 1985 and was knighted in 1992. He told the Times that despite “intimations of mortality” caused by a recent heart attack, he does not intend to retire.
Well into his ninth decade, he can be proud of the fact that he is one of just six barristers with such longevity still practising.