Rose became
Vice-President of the Criminal Division of the
Court of Appeal in 1997. An early case he dealt with in that capacity was
R v Lindsay and Kelly (1998), where preserved
corpses belonging to the
Royal College of Surgeons had been stolen. Rose ruled that the common law principle that "there is no property in a corpse" did not apply once skilled work had been invested in the preservation of the corpses, and therefore the defendants could be found guilty of theft, contrary to the
Theft Act 1968. In 2002 he was Treasurer of the
Middle Temple. On 24 April 2006 he retired, and soon afterwards he was appointed Chief Surveillance Commissioner, a post which he held until 2015. During his time on the Court of Appeal he was an outspoken critic of recent legislation, in particular the
Criminal Justice Act 2003 and the
Sexual Offences Act 2003, which he criticised as being poorly
drafted, saying: "If a history of criminal legislation ever comes to be written it is unlikely that 2003 will be identified as a year of exemplary skill in the annals of Parliamentary drafting." In 2009 he said that the
Civil Nuclear Constabulary's "approach to covert activity" was "conspicuously professional". He found that the system for storing the intelligence gained from informers was "working well" and that "senior officers regard covert surveillance as a long-term requirement". ==References==