Who is this English judge that reinstated the order allowing the doctors to withhold artificial respiration? Although we’ve heard much about Charlotte’s plight, we’ve heard little about the judge who assigned her to that fate.

According to an article from 2004 in the Times Online, Justice Mark Hedley is a 58 year old father of four who was only recently appointed as the 98th judge to the High Court of Justice of England and Wales:

He became a recorder in 1988 and a judge on the Northern circuit in 1992, a position he held for nine years before moving to the High Court, where he is a judge in the Family Division.

Away from court he enjoys cricket and railways.

Not only is he a decent family man, he’s reported to be a devout Anglican. Furthermore,

[He] is a reader at St Peter’s, Everton, a thriving evangelical church in Liverpool in an area designated as an urban priority by the Church of England. He is also Chancellor of the Diocese of Liverpool and chair of Shrewsbury House, a youth centre set up by Shrewsbury School a century ago to help inner-city youths. As a reader, he takes part in pastoral and educational work, evangelism and other forms of lay leadership. He can leads worship, including Morning and Evening Prayer, and take Communion to the sick and housebound.

In December last year the judge, who became a High Court judge three years ago, was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Liverpool for his contributions to family and child law and his local community in Liverpool.

Justice Hedley is also the president of the The Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship. Their e-mail address is: admin@lawcf.org. But something seems not quite right. Although he’s praised as a champion of children’s rights by the Higher Education & Research Opportunities in the United Kingdom (HERO) website, his idea of compassion is to let Charlotte die “‘peacefully in the arms of those who love her most”.