TRIBUTES have been paid to a barrister who rose to fame in the Lady Chatterley’s Lover trial, defended Christine Keeler and provided the inspiration for Rumpole Of The Bailey.

Lord Hutinchson of Lullington, who died on Monday at the age of 102, lived for most of his later years in the tiny East Sussex village from which he took the title of his peerage.

Before his retirement at the age of 70, he was hailed as one of the great barristers of his generation, who successfully defended investigative journalists accused of spying, playwrights accused of obscenity and famous self-confessed drug trafficker Howard Marks of trafficking drugs.

In 1983 he ridiculed a representative of Mary Whitehouse, who claimed to have seen an erect penis on the stage of the National Theatre, by forcing him to reveal in open court that he - the witness - had sat in the back row of the gods and could not be sure whether what he saw was, in fact, a thumb.

Dr Lucy Welsh, Lecturer in Law, within the Law, Politics and Sociology School at the University of Sussex said: “Lord Hutchinson QC’s work in representing notable public figures demonstrates that he was a bold advocate who was a champion of free speech and the ideals of liberal democracy. His case histories are a must read for anyone interested in criminal law and justice”

Geoffrey Robertson QC, writing in The Guardian, praised him as having been the “finest silk in practice at the criminal bar” for a quarter of a century.

And when he turned 100, Sir Alan Moses called him “a hero for us all.”

He said: “He is the living symbol of all that independent criminal advocacy means for justice and the survival of the rule of law.”

Jeremy Hutchinson was born in London, attended Stowe School and then Magdalen College, Oxford.

He followed his father into practice at the criminal bar, and in 1940 married actress Peggy Ashcroft, with whom he formed a ‘power couple’ until their divorce in 1966.

He was credited by television writer, and friend, as being part of the inspiration for the iconic character Rumpole Of The Bailey.

Mortimer said elements of Rumpole were based on Hutchinson “who brought to the Old Bailey the ever so slightly amused voice of Bloomsbury”, and would give examples of the QC wryly asking a jury to agree that they would have “signed anything” to get away from a fierce-looking policeman.

He is survived by his son, Nicholas, and daughter, Eliza.