Former Puisne Judge Vincent Meerabux, who retired at the end of last year, has died.

Mr. Justice Meerabux, 65, who spent 17 years in Bermuda's legal system, died on Friday at his family home in London. The cause of death has not been released.

Premier Alex Scott and Acting Chief Justice Norma Wade-Miller yesterday paid tribute to the former judge.

Mr. Scott said: "On behalf of the Government and people of Bermuda, I wish to extend our most sincere condolences to the family of Judge Meerabux in the loss they and the country have suffered in his passing."

And Mrs. Justice Wade-Miller said: "He was not only a colleague, but a friend, and will be missed by all in the Judicial Department. Our condolences have been conveyed to the family."

Mr. Justice Meerabux, who was born in Georgetown, Guyana, was appointed a judge in Bermuda in 1994.

He had previously spent seven years on the Island working as parliamentary counsel in the Attorney General's Chambers, dealing with civil aviation, criminal law, shipping law, and telecommunications.

He presided over one of the most high profile cases in Bermuda in decades, the trial in 1998 of a man accused of murdering Canadian teenager Rebecca Middleton.

Mr. Justice Meerabux, who was married with four children, started his legal career in 1967 at the Council of Legal Education in England and was called to the English Bar the following year.

He was a parliamentary officer on the House of Lords in London in the 1960's, before gaining a post-graduate certificate in Canadian drafting in the early 1970's.

In 1971, he became a magistrate in Guyana and then moved to the Ministry of Justice.

He became a law draftsman for the Attorney General in Bahamas in 1977, and the following year took over as head of the drafting division at the Trinidad and Tobago Law Commission - a post he held for six years.

In the two years before he came to Bermuda, Mr. Justice Meerabux was a legal advisor and legal draftsman to the Commonwealth Secretariat in London.

He also worked as the Law Revision Commissioner for the Ministry of Justice in Tonga during that period. His brother George was a Chief Justice of Belize.