Judge's robes to be sold
FORMER Appeal Court judge Dennis Barker left so many debts, his widow is having to sell his robes to pay for a headstone for his grave.
Jeanne Barker told the South China Morning Post from her home in Cyprus that a friend would give the robes to the Chief Justice, Sir Ti Liang Yang, in the hope they may be sold to raise funds.
She said the grave in the Paphos cemetery had not been paid for and 2,000 Cyprus pounds (HK$30,940) was needed for the space in the ground and a headstone.
''I do hope someone will buy the robe. I can't lay him to rest until it is all over,'' she said.
Barker, 63, died in a car accident in Cyprus in November 1989. They had been married for less than four months when he died.
Barker had retired to Cyprus after resigning from Hong Kong's judiciary in disgrace following his ruling that six defendants in the territory's costliest trial, the Carrian case, had no case to answer. The decision was severely criticised on appeal.
''I'm desperately unhappy about his grave,'' Mrs Barker said.
''I have planted a tree on the mound which is growing well, but all the other graves have a stone.
''There is a cross to mark his grave, but his name was spelt wrongly. I do want him to have a stone. I have already chosen one. I don't want to make a lot of money from the robes, just enough to pay for the stone.'' She said the former Chief Justice, Sir Denys Roberts, who also has a home in Cyprus, was helping her sell Barker's other wigs and robes which could be worn in other jurisdictions. The robe coming back to Hong Kong was specially made for Court of Appeal judges in the territory.
''It's very sad, and hard to believe, that he should have been a judge for all those years and there is nothing in his estate,'' she said.
The house in Paphos has been put on the market, together with the furniture and a 1978 Rolls-Royce.
