WITH a fanfare of trumpets, a military judge was led off into retirement.

After a career which has seen him try cases in a mountain-top hut in Cyprus and a kindergarten in Germany, Judge Robert Seymour has stepped down.

He is pictured here being driven from the Military Court Martial Centre at Colchester’s Merville Barracks to a surprise retirement party in a classic Landrover with his wife Jane, and led by the Band of the Parachute Regiment.

Mr Seymour said he thought the pomp and ceremony was reserved for royalty and field marshals.

The 61-year-old said: “This has been a complete surprise and I feel overwhelmed and honoured. I had done my last case in court and said a few words of thanks to staff from the bench, but then I was led out of the building and heard the trumpets blaring.”

Mr Seymour, who has worked in military justice for 19 years and been resident judge in Colchester for five years, said he had developed enormous respect for the Army.

He said: “Military justice is every bit as fair, if not fairer than the civil system and the facilities here at Colchester are better than any Crown Court I’ve been to.

“Soldiers are tried as fairly as possible and it is important they feel they get justice.

“I’ve done a lot of the standard work, like AWOL cases, but the operational cases have been interesting, with soldiers working under enormous pressure and knowing how they react to things could lead to criminal charges.”

In his retirement, Mr Seymour, who lives in Frinton, will be writing novels and serving on Chelmsford Prison’s independent monitoring board.

His first novel, Wig Begone, written under the nom de plume Charles Courtley, tells the story of a newly-qualified barrister.