BOLTON’S next top judge will be named tomorrow as Judge Timothy Clayson.

The appointment is expected to be voted through by Bolton Council at a meeting in the town hall on Wednesday evening.

Judge Clayson, from Leeds, will follow His Hon Judge William Morris as the Honorary Recorder of Bolton, the most senior position in Bolton’s judiciary.

Judge Morris, aged 65, retired last month after 17 years as a judge and four as Honorary Recorder of Bolton.

The council will tomorrow formally thank Judge Morris for his work.

Bolton Council leader Cllr Cliff Morris is expected to say: “The council wishes his Honour Judge William Morris a long and happy retirement and thanks him for his work both in the courts and the local community.”

Judge Clayson qualified as a barrister in 1974 and has had an eventful career, including time spent as an international judge for the UN, when he helped to deal with the aftermath of the NATO intervention in Kosovo.

Nato began air strikes against targets in Kosovo and Serbia in March 1999 after Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic led a campaign of “ethnic cleansing”

against Kosovo Albanians.

Hundreds of thousands of refugees fled to Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro and thousands of people died in the conflict. Serbian forces were driven out in the summer of 1999 and the UN took over the administration of the province.

“We were parachuted into the local legal system.

Judge Clayson told The Bolton News in an interview in 2009: “We were appointed as judges of the district courts of Kosovo, so it’s just like being appointed as a crown court judge here.”

“We were doing these often incredibly sensitive cases in the public forum in Kosovo.

“Not in some barricaded compound but actually in the local courts. It was a huge learning curve.”

Commenting on his new role, Judge Clayson said yesterday: “It is a great honour and I am thrilled to be asked to take over the role which Judge Morris has held for some time now.

“He is a wonderful figure to be following and someone who is a great friend and of great inspiration.

“Hopefully I will be able to mirror how he has done the job.