1 0 0 Y E A R S A G O
IN September 1986, the Eye ran the first of
many articles exposing the vile David Cocks
QC, then chair of the Criminal Bar Association.
Having impregnated young barrister Felicity
Hammerton, Cocks had her thrown out of chambers
after she refused an abortion. When the baby was
born – a son, also called David – he denied
paternity. A court recognised him as the father,
however, and ordered him to support the boy.
For the first 12 years, the fox-hunting QC paid
a princely £16.24 a week, leaving Hammerton to
bring up their son in a council flat in Camden.
(Cocks, by contrast, owns a 200-acre estate in
Devon.) Hammerton spent much of the 1980s and
1990s embroiled in court proceedings applying to
have the payments raised while Cocks applied to
reduce them. At one point Cocks shamelessly
applied for her to pay his £35,000 court costs –
even though he had lost the case.
The saga concluded last week when Cocks
agreed to pay £100,000 to David in a final settlement.
Cocks shouldn’t have a problem finding the
loot: his annual earnings at the Bar are £750,000.