Well-known Perth criminal lawyer, Ron Cannon, died on Monday at the age of 86.
Ron Cannon died on Monday following a bout of ill health at the age of 86.
“The law courts were never dull when Ron Cannon was on the case,” wrote former court reporter for The West Australian, Margot Lang in an editorial remembering Cannon this week.
“I knew him as one of WA’s top criminal lawyers in the 1970s and ’80s.
“A brilliant man who loved the law – especially criminal law – he was also easily bored and impatient with unnecessary details which did not get to the nub of the matter.”
Cannon was involved in some of Western Australia’s highest profile cases.
He represented Peter Mickelberg in the Perth Mint swindle case in 1982 where the Mickelberg brothers were charged with the robbery of 49 gold bricks weighing 68 kilos. He also represented Kevin Barlow, an Australian charged with drug trafficking in Malaysia and executed in 1986, causing public outcry at the time.
Linda Black, former president of the Criminal Lawyers’ Association remembered Cannon’s shinning character in an interview with the ABC.
“I think Ron would be horrified by being called [Perth’s] most prominent criminal lawyer, but he certainly was,” she said.
“He was a very old-fashioned gentleman, but equally extremely amusing and polite. He was someone that everyone in the courtroom got on well with, the judge, the security guard and the cleaner who came in afterwards to pack away the chairs. He was a delightful man.”
The funeral for Cannon will be held tomorrow at Perth’s Karrakatta Cemetery.
