The lord chief justice has thanked defence solicitors for the ‘huge contribution’ made in the summer riot court cases, stressing that they had been included in his earlier praise of the rest of the legal profession.

At his annual press conference at the Royal Courts of Justice, Lord Judge said: ‘I want to record publicly that the defence lawyers made a huge contribution to the efficient running of the courts at that time. I am grateful to them.’

Judge said in his October judgment on riot sentencing he had thanked a lot of people who had helped in the ‘remarkable piece of efficiency’ dealing with the riot cases.

But he said: ‘I think some of the defence solicitors felt that I had not sufficiently individually recognised the work done by defence solicitors. If they thought that, they were mistaken. It was certainly not my intention to exclude them. I specifically included them as part of the legal profession.’

The lord chief justice also gave guarded support for television cameras broadcasting from the Court of Appeal and during judgments, although he expressed ‘very significant concerns’ about televising the trial process. ‘I think there is a case for saying there should be no difficulty in televising the judge’s sentencing remarks in the Crown court at the end of a trial,’ he said.

‘I have some reservations about it, but for the time being we can ignore those reservations. The proof of the pudding there may be in the eating. But I do have very significant concerns about the impact of the television cameras on the trial process.

‘It is terribly easy to overlook what a difficult situation a witness finds himself or herself in. There are enough pressures. The pressure of being on television, even if they think they are welcoming it, alters something about the witness.’

He warned broadcasters, with whom he met last week, that footage from the Court of Appeal ‘will not make riveting viewing’.