- Mr. Hampel was a member of the bar for 65 years
Former Victorian Supreme Court judge George Hampel AM KC has died aged 91.
Victorian Bar President Georgina Schoff KC said Mr Hampel signed the Bar Roll in 1958 and was a member for 65 years.
He worked as a criminal lawyer and then served as a Supreme Court judge from 1983 to 2000.
Mr Hampel presided over more than 100 murder trials, including that of Julian Knight over the 1987 Hoddle St massacre in the Melbourne suburb of Clifton Hill, in which seven people were shot dead.
“He was engaging and polite and always had a twinkle in his eye,” Mrs. Schoff wrote.
Mr Hampel is said to have ‘inspired and educated lawyers at the bar and throughout the common law world’.
This included teaching at the Inns of Court in Britain, where the Inner Temple flag will fly at half-mast in his honour.
“I would like to express my sincere condolences to his widow, her Honor Felicity Hampel AM SC, and to the rest of his family, his friends, colleagues and countless students,” Mrs Schoff said.
Mr Hampel was born in Poland just before the Second World War and subsequently moved to Australia with his family.
He attended Melbourne High School and then studied law at the University of Melbourne.
His funeral will take place at Carousel in Albert Park on Friday from 10.30am.
More to come…
Former Supreme Court judge George Hampel AM KC has died aged 91. Stock image