One of New Zealand’s longest serving judges has died, just two years after leaving the bench.

Judge Tony Adeane, 72, passed away in Napier on Saturday after a period of illness.

Adeane became a District Court judge in 1993 and presided over more than 630 jury trials and countless other hearings, mostly in Hawke’s Bay, before reaching the compulsory retirement age of 70 in 2020.

He was known locally for his firm but fair manner. He had a dry-wit that could bring a full courtroom to laughter, and a gravitas that could bring it to reverential silence.

A busy list day would see Adeane deal with more than 140 people, many of whom he’d come to know through a decade or more of court appearances. Respect was often, but not always, mutual, and he had little patience if he thought he was being given the runaround by defendants, lawyers, police, or anyone else.

Judge Adeane achieved a degree of national prominence in 2007 when he sentenced three men to short prison sentences after they’d gone on tagging sprees.

Adeane was raised in Gisborne. He attended Gisborne Boys High School, where he was in the same class as Justice Robert Dobson and Chief Ombudsman (and former principal Family Court Judge) Peter Boshier.

He studied law at Victoria University and joined Gisborne law firm Chrisp and Chrisp in 1974, becoming a partner in 1976 and remaining with the firm for 20 years, specialising in criminal law.

Adeane was appointed a District Court Judge on December 16, 1993, and presided in the courts of Napier, Hastings, Wairoa, Gisborne, Ruatoria and Waipukurau, with occasional visits to other courts around the country.

He was married to Linda for 50 years and the couple had two children.

In a rare interview with the Dominion Post in 2009, Adeane said he had a "typical middle-class upbringing".

He was an argumentative teen who enjoyed a good debate. Law suited him, although as a 15-year-old who loved fast cars and motorbikes he toyed briefly with becoming an apprentice mechanic.

"My grandfather was an engineer in the Gisborne refrigeration company. He once took me to see where the mechanics worked. It was about 7.30 one morning and they were under a wet, dripping, greasy car. He said, `If that's what you want, then leave school.' I stayed at school,” he said.

Adeane enjoyed being a judge.

“It can be challenging and tiring, but on a busy list day, with 140 people appearing, there will always be surprises, and invariably something amusing," he said at the time.

Those moments of levity were important in long days dominated by themes of sadness and despair. 

"I read 20-30 probation reports a week. So often the probation and parole reports tell a sadly familiar story - boys raised outside the family, exposed to drugs as children, physically or sexually abused, out of school at 14 without qualifications, dependent on a benefit pittance and producing children while still children themselves.

"It's hardly surprising that such bleak prospects don't inspire effort or achievement. It may be unfashionable, to identify the issues in such stark terms, but those are the facts and they can't be addressed until they are faced," he said.

“One of our cornerstone justice beliefs is that the problems of young offenders are best addressed within the family. Yet the reality in many cases is that the family is either non-existent or has itself been the source of the child's problems.

"I need to keep reminding myself that the people I see in court are only a tiny percentage of the population. Sometimes sitting in court all day you could develop a feeling that crime is everywhere, that crime is running out of control, but I don't believe it is,” he said.

Adeane was a keen motorcyclist and fisherman. He got his first motorbike at 15, and his last, an 860cc Triumph Bonneville was only relinquished seven years ago.

Adeane left behind his wife Linda, son Mark, daughter Frances, sister Jude and four grandchildren, Raphael, Jack, Leah, and Grace.

-Marty Sharpe/Stuff.