One of Kent's leading barristers has been appointed a judge based at Maidstone Crown Court.

Oliver Saxby KC is also about to be portrayed on TV in a film about one of his high-profile cases.

The Eton-educated lawyer, born and raised in the county, told KentOnline: "I am genuinely excited to have been appointed and looking forward to embarking on the next stage of my career.

"I am also thrilled to have been appointed to sit in Maidstone…there is a sense of coming home having been involved in cases across the country."

His appointment follows his colleague Simon Taylor KC, who is to sit at Canterbury Crown Court – both were part of the barristers "set" at Six Pump Court chambers in London.

Oliver played cricket for Band of Brothers and Tenterden and regularly attends games at Canterbury's St Lawrence Ground.

When he is not watching his favourites Manchester United, he visits Maidstone United.

He comes to the bench at a critical time when cases are piling up as defence barristers are in a dispute with the Government over Legal Aid fees.

Among his many cases, Oliver prosecuted 12 defendants in the Aylesbury grooming case, Wind In The Willows killer Michael Danaher and mother Louise Porton who killed her two children within 15 days of each other.

He has also defended some of the Post Office staff wrongly convicted for fraud and his last appearance at Maidstone Crown Court was defending murderer David Fuller who killed two women in Tunbridge Wells in the 1980s and abused scores of bodies in a hospital mortuary.

Another of his prosecutions, regarding murdering church warden Ben Field, is being made into a four-part BBC drama called The Sixth Commandment, starring Timothy Spall and Sheila Hancock.

The 31-year-old from Buckinghamshire secretly spiked his 69-year-old victim's drinks before killing him in order to inherit his house in 2019.

Recently Oliver spent the day on the film set and met the actor who is playing the barrister on screen.

In the lawyers' "bibles" Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners – where he was nominated as criminal Silk Of The Year – he is described as a "brilliant cross examiner and a real jury advocate – a class act", and "clever and concise".