Havers was the trial judge who presided over the conviction of Ruth Ellis for murder in 1955. Ellis was the last woman to be sentenced to death and executed in the United Kingdom. In a 2010 television interview his grandson, the actor Nigel Havers, revealed that his grandfather had written to the Home Secretary recommending a reprieve as he regarded it as a "crime passionnel", but received a curt refusal. He subsequently sent money annually for the upkeep of Ellis's son.