Clutha helicopter crash inquiry sheriff becomes judge

Craig Turnbull was installed as a Senator of the College of Justice in a ceremony at Parliament House in Edinburgh.

Author: Lucinda CameronPublished 19th May 2023

A former sheriff principal who heard the inquiry into the Clutha helicopter crash has become Scotland's newest judge.

Craig Turnbull, former Sheriff Principal of Glasgow and Strathkelvin, was installed as a Senator of the College of Justice in a ceremony at Parliament House in Edinburgh on Friday.

He has taken the title of Lord Colbeck following the ceremony, which was led by Lord President Lord Carloway.

Lord Colbeck was appointed Sheriff Principal of Glasgow and Strathkelvin in September 2016.

In 2019, he heard the fatal accident inquiry into the helicopter crash at the Clutha bar in Glasgow, which killed 10 people in 2013.

Speaking on Friday, Lord Carloway told the new judge: "Lord Colbeck, your judicial experience will be of great benefit to our supreme courts.

"We all wish you well in this new phase in an already distinguished career."

Scotland's Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain was among those at the ceremony on Friday.

Lord Colbeck graduated from the University of Strathclyde and was admitted as a solicitor in 1988, working for AC White in Ayr and Levy & McRae in Glasgow before joining MacRoberts in 1993.

He became a partner there in 1997, specialising in commercial and construction disputes and health and safety and environmental prosecutions, and served as the managing partner from 2011 to 2014.

He was appointed as a part-time sheriff in 2011 and became a sheriff in 2014.

Lord Colbeck has been a member of the Scottish Sentencing Council since 2020.

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