Bermuda’s first female Crown counsel, Priya Levers, has passed away in the Cayman Islands.

Mrs Levers, who spent five years on the Island in the late 1970s, died on Christmas Eve.

Bermuda’s Chief Justice, Ian Kawaley, paid tribute to her yesterday.

“I was saddened to hear of the passing of former Justice Priya Levers recently,” he said.

”I first met her when she was a Crown counsel and I was a law student in the Attorney General’s Chambers in the mid to late 1970s, and she impressed me greatly.

“She was a formidable advocate with a sharp brain, a bubbly personality with an often wicked sense of humour.

“In the 1980s, she appeared from time to time as defence counsel in the Bermuda courts.

“She will be missed but not forgotten by any member of the legal fraternity who knew her.”

After leaving Bermuda, Mrs Levers moved to Jamaica, where she worked in a private firm for 25 years.

A native of Sri Lanka, she then went to the Cayman Islands and was the first woman appointed to Cayman’s Grand Court.

She was suspended from office in September 2008 by Stuart Jack, then the Governor.

Mr Jack convened a judicial tribunal, which was asked to consider whether the judge’s conduct, manner and behaviour towards witnesses, attorneys, court staff and judges amounted to misbehaviour warranting her removal from office.

The tribunal made its report to the Privy Council’s Judicial Committee, which recommended that Mrs Levers be removed from office for misbehaviour and an inability to carry out the functions of her role as a Grand Court judge in Cayman.

She was formally removed from office by Governor Duncan Taylor in August 2010.