Judge John Deed

- Season 5

(2006)

Deed presides over the case of a prison inmate who is charged with killing and cannibalizing his cell mate. Both the prosecution and the defense agree that a plea to manslaughter is appropriate but cannot agree to whether diminished capacity applies. Deed therefore wades into new areas, much to the dismay of the Home Secretary, when he decides to hear evidence to determine the facts of the case. Underlying it all is the behavior of the prison officers involved who knowingly placed the victim, a black man, in the same cell with a known and violent racist. Jo Mills is ...

When a university research laboratory is bombed, Deed finds himself hearing a case of murder against Henry Free, a well-known animal rights activist who had been harassing the professor who was killed. Jo Mills declines to act for the defense given her deteriorating relationship with Deed but Charlie Deed finds herself acting as a junior with Simon Norwalk as her leader. When he is dismissed by Free, Charlie finds herself acting for the defense with the Attorney General prosecuting. The crown's case relies heavily on a witness whose identity cannot be revealed in the ...

Judge John Deed has to judge a case concerning Jo's boyfriend, paedaetric consultant Marc Thompson. Marc wants to take the decision not to resuscitate a two-year old patient at his hospital who has a weak heart and is in a coma, if the child's heart stops again, but the parents disagree. In another case, Deed has to sentence a young thief, and the youth then dies in custody. All this brings back Deed's memories of his own traumatic childhood. He is spoiling for a fight and argues with Jo - who announces that she has decided to marry Marc. He then picks a fight with ...

Deed hears the case of a woman suffering from motor neuron disease. She believes she has been made ill from the microwaves emitted by a cellphone transmission tower that was installed on the roof of her building some years before. The case once again brings him into conflict with the Home Secretary and industrialist Sir Timothy Listfield. The Lord Chancellor's Department want Deed off the case and are considering everything from calling him for jury duty to sending him to Brussels to hear cases at the International War Crimes Tribunal. Deed is also intrigued by Rose ...

Judge Deed finds himself called for jury duty. He is excused in a case presided over by Monte Everard and where Jo Mills is acting for the defense. He is also excused from a particularly long trial on the request of the defense as he knows too many of the principals. He is finally accepted in the case of Olga Plachek, a nanny who is accused of murder in a baby shaking death. When the jury begins to deliberate, Deed finds himself in the minority wanting to look at the evidence while most would be happy to convict and go home. One man is particularly hateful and ...

With Jo's wedding approaching, Deed pleads with her to re-consider. In court he finds himself presiding over a pre-trial hearing where a mother is refusing to allow her daughter to receive the MMR (mumps, measles, rubella) vaccine on the grounds the multiple vaccine is unsafe. It doesn't help that her husband is the principal spokesperson and advocate for child immunization. Appearing before Mrs Justice Morag Hughes, Jo Mills makes an application of habeas corpus on behalf of Rose Hussein who was arrested by the police after she publicly accused the British Army of ...