A former British Army soldier has been appointed as a Cayman specialist judge in criminal cases, Chief Justice Margaret Ramsay-Hale has revealed.
Emma Peters, a former lieutenant colonel and at present a judge in the English county of Suffolk, is expected to take up her new job in the George Town courthouse soon.
Ramsay-Hale said, “She’s a judge of the Crown Court in Ipswich, she’s a deputy presiding judge and has the distinction of having been a former army advocate, so she has some very strong credentials.”
She revealed the hire as Cayman’s judges and legal profession marked the start of the new legal year earlier this month.
Peters, 55, who spent about 20 years in the Army Legal Services branch of the Adjutant General’s Corps, was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1991 and started judge advocacy in 2010.
She was appointed as a circuit judge in 2016 and joined Ipswich Crown Court in 2020, where she has dealt with major cases.
She said in an interview last year that she had ambitions to become a barrister from an early age, but her family could not afford the fees, so she joined the armed services.
Peters said, “Instead I got a scholarship from the Army, which enabled me to become a barrister.
“The plan was always I had to do at least six years full-time to fulfill my role. I ended up staying for 20 years.”
She travelled the world in her army role, working on legal affairs in Hong Kong and Germany. She also had an advisory role during the 1992-94 war in the former Yugoslavia.
Peters was promoted to lieutenant colonel in her early 30s and became the army’s head of employment law.
She was later appointed resident judge at the Colchester army base, where courts martial are held.
Peters said in the interview that she had suffered from sexist attitudes in her careers from an early age.
But she added that that had helped her to have a compassionate approach to those who appeared before her in court.
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