Desmond Ackner , Baron Ackner For other Ackners , see Ackner Desmond James Conrad Ackner , Baron Ackner , PC , QC ( born September 18 , 1920 - died March 21 , 2006 ) was a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary . Early life Ackner was the son of a Jewish dentist , Dr Conrad Ackner , from Vienna , who came to England before the First World War . He was educated at the Highgate School , before attending university at Clare College , Cambridge , where he read economics and law , and where he was later an honorary Fellow . During World War II , he was commissioned into the Royal Artillery , although a twisted foot kept him out of active service and he was transferred to the Admiralty 's naval law branch . Legal and judicial career Ackner was admitted into Middle Temple as a barrister in 1945 , practising mainly commercial law . He became a Queen 's Counsel in 1961 , a Bencher of Middle Temple in 1965 and was later Treasurer in 1984 . He came to public notice acting for victims of thalidomide in the late 1960s in their action for damages against the manufacturer of the drug , Distillers , which was settled before trial , and as counsel for the families of the victims at the public inquiry into the Aberfan disaster in 1967 , in which he condemned the `` callous indifference , incompetence , ignorance , and inertia '' in the National Coal Board . He subsequently appeared in a number of very public libel actions , including acting for John Bloom , International Herald Tribune , Svetlana Alliluyeva ( Stalin 's daughter ) , and Lee Kwan Yew ( prime minister of Singapore ) , and The Spectator . He was elected to the Bar Council in 1957 , was treasurer in 1964 , vice-chairman in 1966 , and chairman in 1968 . He was appointed Recorder of Swindon in 1962 , and became an Appellate Judge of Jersey and Guernsey in 1967 , serving in both offices until he was appointed a High Court Judge of the Queen 's Bench in 1971 . He became a judge of the Commercial Court in 1973 , and was promoted to become a Lord Justice of Appeal and was appointed to the Privy Council in 1980 . Three years later , in 1983 , he became an Honorary Fellow of the University of Cambridge . In 1986 , he was appointed Lord of Appeal in Ordinary , earning the right to sit as Baron Ackner , of Sutton in the County of West Sussex in the House of Lords . He joined in the majority in the House of Lords in 1987 in the 3 : 2 judgment imposing an injunction to prevent The Guardian , The Observer and The Sunday Times newspapers publishing extracts from Peter Wright 's book , Spycatcher , saying that failing to impose an injunction would be a `` charter for traitors '' . He also joined in decisions banning broadcasts by the IRA and Sinn Féin , and ruled in the R. v . R. case that a man could be convicted of the rape of his wife ( overturning a century of judicial precedent ) . Retirement He retired as a Law lord in 1992 but continued to attend the Lords as a crossbencher . He remained active in Bar politics , supporting the traditional division of the legal profession in the UK and opposing the extension of rights of audience to solicitors . References Obituary ( The Telegraph , 23 March 2006 ) Obituary ( The Times , 23 March 2006 ) Obituary ( The Guardian , 24 March 2006 ) Categories : 1920 births | 2006 deaths | Law lords | Life peers | Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom | Alumni of Clare College , Cambridge 