Bartemius "Barty" Crouch Sr. was the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement when Voldemort first came to power. Crouch was somewhat megalomaniacal and intensely preoccupied with presenting the appearance of respectability. Crouch was a narrow, inflexible man who stiffly followed the rules. Though he despised the Dark Arts, the lengths to which he was willing to go to disassociate with anything that might blemish his reputation led him to behave almost as cruelly as many on the Dark Side, and gave Aurors powers to kill rather than capture suspected Death Eaters who resisted arrest. He sent Sirius Black to the wizard prison Azkaban without a trial. Crouch appeared to be the favourite to become the next Minister for Magic until his son, Barty Crouch Jr., was caught with the Lestranges, Death Eaters who were assisting Voldemort's rise to power and who had tortured Neville's parents with the Cruciatus Curse. Crouch gave his son a trial before sending him to Azkaban; however, according to Sirius, the trial was a sham, merely a public demonstration of how much he hated the boy. The public were sympathetic to Crouch Jr., and placed all the blame on Crouch Sr., accusing him of driving his son to join the Death Eaters because of his parental neglect. After the trial, Crouch lost much of his popularity and any chance he had of becoming Minister of Magic, and he was shunted sideways to a post as the head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation.