A judge who has presided over many of the West Country’s most famous trials has retired after almost 25 years on the bench.

Judge Graham Cottle was honoured at a special ceremony at Exeter Crown Court at which he thanked court staff, the legal profession and many others for the help he has received over the years.

He was the senior resident judge at Truro and Exeter, where he revived the title of Recorder of the City of Exeter.

During his time as a judge he presided over the trials of so-called witch Margaret James, who organised the murder of occultist Peter Solheim, whose body was dumped at sea after he was beaten and tortured.

Judge Cottle also jailed Nicholas Rose for the murder of Charlotte Pinkney, who vanished after a party in Ilfracombe in 2005.

More recently he oversaw the trial of Stuart Hodgkin, who was convicted at Exeter Crown Court of the murder of Adrian Munday at his home in Newton Abbot.

The last major case which the judge dealt with was the killing of electrician Philip Ryan by mentally disturbed Keith Beviss at the Jehovah’s Witness hall in Honiton. He sent Beviss to a mental hospital indefinitely.

Judge Cottle broke with the tradition by which other senior judges and barristers make tributes in court and instead made a speech at Exeter Crown Court reviewing his career and thanking those who have helped him.

His involvement with the criminal justice system in the South West started when he was in his 20s and co-founded a set of barristers’ chambers in Exeter.

He moved away to practise in Hampshire for a few years before becoming first a recorder and then a judge on the Western Circuit.

Judge Cottle’s final day had been scheduled for last week but all sittings at Exeter Crown Court were postponed because of the weather.

In his farewell address he joked: ‘My decision to postpone last Friday was inevitable but that did not prevent one of my so-called friends telling me that at least I had got one decision right in my career.’