his secondary education in Raffles Institution after World War II, completing his Senior Cambridge examinations there in 1948. He went on to read law at University College London and graduated in 1953. He was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn. Legal career Upon Sinnathuray's return to Singapore, he practised law with the firm Oehlers and Choa. He was a magistrate of the Subordinate Courts of Singapore between 1956 and 1959. He was then appointed deputy registrar and sheriff of the Supreme Court of Singapore in 1959. Between 1960 and 1963 he was a Crown Counsel and deputy public prosecutor with the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC), before returning to the supreme court to become the registrar from 1963 to 1966. He then became senior state counsel at the AGC (1966–1967), and first district judge (1967–1970) and senior district judge – the most senior judge – of the subordinate courts (1971–1978). On 2 October 1978, he was appointed a judge of the High Court of Singapore, and served until his retirement on 23 September 1997. At the time of his appointment, he was one of only six supreme court justices. On 1 August 1979, he was appointed the commissioner of appeals for land acquisitions. Notable cases judged by Sinnathuray included the Toa Payoh ritual murders trial in 1983, and the trial of the serial murderer John Martin Scripps in 1995. In 1985 he ruled that decisions of Singapore's Military Court of Appeal are not susceptible to judicial review in the High Court since the Military Court is a superior court of record. Sinnathuray also served as the third president of the Military Court of Appeal from 1990 until 30 November 1997, and was succeeded by Justice Goh Joon Seng. On 16 May 1988, Sinnathuray ruled that the Government was entitled under the Newspaper and Printing Presses Act to restrict the circulation of the Asian Wall Street Journal for having engaged in the domestic politics of Singapore. The decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal the following year. Sinnathuray was the inaugural chairman of the ASEAN Law Association (ALA) (Singapore Chapter) when it was formed in 1980. On 18 April 1986, he was appointed by President Wee Kim Wee to chair a commission of inquiry to investigate allegations by opposition politician J. B. Jeyaretnam that the Government had interfered with the subordinate judiciary by ordering the transfer of Senior District Judge Michael