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SCMP Reporter

IN Brunei everybody knows former Hong Kong Chief Justice Sir Denys Roberts. His official car's registration plates carry the legend ''KETUA HAKIM'', the Big Judge.

  At 70, Sir Denys is a man on the move; and still dispensing justice.

  When he left Hong Kong in 1988, it was not to retire but instead to find a home base convenient to his extraordinary new career: as president of the Court of Appeals in Bermuda, and Chief Justice in Brunei.

  His wife, Lady Fiona Roberts, solved the domicile problem, choosing a property on the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus.

  ''She went ahead to Cyprus without me. It was her first visit there but she liked it immediately. I just signed the papers.''   The couple's new home is eight kilometres from the coast in the southwestern area of the island where they live with their seven-year-old son Henry.

   At 70, the eyebrows still bristle and the jokes come as readily as they ever did in the old Hong Kong days.

   ''We wanted somewhere halfway between Bermuda and Brunei, and my wife likes it. It's very hot and sunny, if you like that sort of thing.

  ''I've been in the sun for so long, in Africa, Brunei and Hong Kong, that I could not live in a cold climate. Not that I ever actually go into the sun.''   For six months every year Sir Denys lives in Brunei in a government high security complex. Lady Roberts joins him for a few weeks during every stint.

   ''For a full-time Brunei Chief Justice there isn't really enough work. Two local Brunei intermediate court judges, one a woman, take the top end of the magistrates' work and the bottom end of the High Court work.

  ''Eventually, one will take over from me. They will get rid of me when they want to.''     As Chief Justice in Hong Kong Sir Denys had already become accustomed to doing two or three weeks a year on the Bench in Brunei and, when he finally left the territory in March 1988, he took the Brunei job as one of his regular commissions.

  Two months every year are spent in the Court of Appeals in Bermuda and two more, at the height of the English summer and the cricket season, in his favourite seat at the Lords cricket ground ''watching the Australians beat us''.

  As one of Hong Kong's highest ranking former civil servants, Sir Denys sees a changing and more difficult role for the territory's Government employees.

  ''They will have a very difficult job, as they will be serving a different master if they are going to serve through 1997.

  ''Unless things change considerably in China, it will be a completely different regime in the civil service.''   Sir Denys's career has taken him to Africa, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Brunei and Bermuda.

  He joined the justice section of the civil service after struggling to make a living in private practice in England, joining the Colonial Legal Service and accepting a posting to Malawi (formerly Nyasaland).

  His next posting was to Gibraltar as Attorney-General and then to Hong Kong.

  ''In my life I've been lucky in that I've had a series of jobs that I have enjoyed very much.

  ''In 1958, I can remember walking through a street in Nyasaland and thinking that I had never been happier.

  ''My professional life really has been a series of chances. From Nyasaland, after presiding over a disastrous Commission of Inquiry, they were looking for someone to be Attorney-General in Gibraltar. Then came Hong Kong in 1962.''   Looking back over the years, he never forgets that he has sent men to their death.

   ''Quite a number I prosecuted were hanged. In Nyasaland about 20 a year were convicted of murder. All were sentenced to death.

  ''In Gibraltar none was hanged and in Hong Kong you commute everybody. You might get it right 80 per cent of the time. That's the best you can hope for.''   His work schedule in Brunei leaves little time for relaxation.

  ''We sit five to six days a week, Friday and Sunday being holidays. If I'm behind in the work we will sit on a Friday, which is not my holiday but it is locally.

  ''This doesn't cause trouble, except during the fasting month. But there must be a two-hour break in the middle of the day so people can go to the mosque.''   A recent three months' stint saw cases involving the murder of a watchman, a Filipina amah who killed a baby in her care after her first day at work, rape, traffic offences, insurance disputes and ''a wrangle over building fish ponds''.

  In his free time, writing and cricket are his first loves, and David Gower, who grew up in Malawi and has just retired from the first-class game, heads his list of favourite players.

  ''I'm still writing. You can always find time if you want to do it. I've nearly finished one book, and I've already finished one about Africa, a series of 25 episodes; autobiographical, I suppose, covering 1953-59 when I was Crown Counsel in what is now Malawi.

  ''It's based on actual cases and called I'll do better next time.''   The partly completed work is a book on Hong Kong.

  ''But it's difficult to find a publisher, unless you are an actor or a political figure. Otherwise, publishers are reluctant. Of course, it's meant to be humorous. I can't write anything serious.''   For Sir Denys, raising a young child at an advanced age and with the difficulties of frequent travel is little problem.

  Henry will be sent to a boarding school in England, near Marlborough, next year. He is now a day pupil at an international school in Cyprus.

  ''It's best to get him into the English education system early, although the Cyprus school is fair enough to age 11.

  ''When you are away so much you spoil children horribly. The mother tries to bring discipline into their lives and then you come home. I'm absolutely ruinous.''     His two children from his first marriage had a less privileged up-bringing.

  ''I was 28 when my first child was born and I was very poor. I guess I stopped being poor when I went to Nyasaland in 1953, although even then I didn't save any money.

  ''My first wife went off with someone else in 1971. We were divorced in 1973. I first saw my future wife when she was prosecuting a case in my court.''   The magic didn't happen then but the couple met socially about a month later when, Sir Denys said, the future Lady Roberts reminded him that he owed her lunch, because of the court's late sitting.

   He offered dinner; his secretary issued the invitation.

   ''She turned up, expecting a dozen other people to be there. There was just her and I. I wanted to get to know her better.''   Six months later the couple were engaged. They married in 1985.

  In the years between marriages, Sir Denys was an eligible ''semi-bachelor'' around town in Hong Kong.

  He admits it.

  ''I did have lots of dancing partners. I think there were 14 dancing partners. No more dancing partners now.

  ''I've had a lovely life. I'm quite sure that, all along, it was the right thing to do. But it's a vanished life. You couldn't do it again.'' 



Sir Denys, at 70, still likes it hot