Wednesday 10 August 2016

Female judge calls defendant "a bit of a c*nt" - presumably this is a legal first?

This is from the Legal Cheek website:
Judge Patricia Lynch QC made her shocking comment while sentencing 50-year-old John Hennigan for breaching his anti-social behaviour order (ASBO).
Mid way through Lynch’s sentencing remarks, Hennigan — who has 23 convictions to his name — told her she was “a bit of a c**t”.
Without missing a beat, Lynch, who became a circuit judge in 2014, responded:
"You are a bit of a c*** yourself. Being offensive to me doesn’t help..."
...Hennigan then responded:
"Go f*** yourself."
Remaining cool, calm and collected, Lynch, who is a former member of London’s Red Lion Chambers, retorted:
"You too."
According to the account of the charming offender's court appearance in The Sun:
Hennigan then banged on the glass panel of the dock at Chelmsford Crown Court, performed a Nazi salute and twice shouted “Sieg Heil” before starting to sing “Jews gas them all….”
Judge Lynch, still speaking in a measured tone, commented: “We are all really impressed. Take him down.”
When I was a lad, judges used to halt proceedings to ask questions like "And what, precisely, is the meaning of the term Daddy-oh?", and now (to borrow a phrase of Harry Redknapp's to describe soccer supporters indicating disdain for certain players during a match) they're merrily "c*nting off" defendants. How times have changed! And yet it's hard to feel too censorious regarding M'lud's behaviour (or should that be M'lady?).

2 comments:

  1. No, not "M'lady". We do not want to start all that Oscar Pistorius nonsense here : "....I did not shoot Reeva, moi loidy etc etc" delivered in his whingeing voice before his head disappeared in the ubiquitous court bucket. The phrase has already started up in my head again.

    Re the abovementioned John Hennigan. I think I may have met him in the Royal Enclosure at Ascot a few years ago. Is he one of the Berkshire Hennigans?

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    Replies
    1. I imagine Mr. Hennigan would prefer to address female judges as "You Slag".

      I think you're probably right about the gentleman's origins - I imagine he's a prominent member of the Berkshire Hunt. In fact, he's evidently a total Berkshire Hunt.

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