Colin Nicholson

Colin Maurice Nicholson (21 June 1936 – 31 October 2015) was a New Zealand lawyer and jurist. He served as a judge of the High Court of New Zealand from 1998 until 2009. He also served as a justice of the High Court of the Cook Islands from his appointment in April 2005 until his retirement in May 2012. In 2011, Nicholson became the first judge to prosecute citizens of the Cook Islands for counterfeit DVD piracy.

Biography Nicholson was born in Turua, a small village on New Zealand's Hauraki Plains, on 21 June 1936. He received his education at St Stephen's School in Bombay and at Thames High School, before studying at Auckland University College, from where he graduated with a Bachelor of Laws in 1960. Later that year he was admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand (at that time known as the Supreme Court).

During his career as a barrister, Nicholson appeared in some of New Zealand's most high-profile cases, including the Bassett Road machine gun murders trials (as a junior to prosecutor Sir Graham Speight), and as defence counsel in the trial of David Wayne Tamihere for the murder of Urban Höglin and Heidi Paakkonen.

In April 2005, Nicholson was appointed to the High Court of the Cook Islands, and oversaw a range of both civil and criminal trials during his tenure. He proposed a legislative amendment following a legal drafting error that almost led to the dismissal of charges against a defendant accused of growing cannabis. but were all acquitted in April 2010.

In 2011, Nicholson became the first judge to prosecute Cook Islanders for DVD piracy.