Photo Credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Court_of_Chancery_edited.jpg

During the time I was practicing law the complaint was often heard that the judges of England were totally out of touch with the vast majority of the population. It appeared that the judges were in the main from the upper class which was not necessarily the same class as the accused and the defendants appearing before them. It was also noted at the time that a very large proportion of judges were drawn from the ranks of the prosecution and thus they had very little opportunity of ‘bonding’ with and observing defendant clients at close hand.

These complaints were often corroborated by unfortunate (to say the least) utterances from the bench during the course of trials that clearly demonstrated the reality. I am giving two classic examples below in support of this point.

Case 1: The defendant was a tough docker who would work long hours doing difficult and sometimes dangerous work for which he was well remunerated. The evidence was that he was an excellent provider for his wife and small children and on being paid on a Thursday would take his pay packet unopened home to his wife, give her the lot, while she would hand him a few pounds for himself and so on Thursday nights he would take himself off to his local hostelry and get very drunk. On returning home he would usually beat up his wife, motivated not be any evil intent but rather the effect of the alcohol.

It appeared that on one day he went too far, the police were called, he was arrested and charged with GBH (grievous bodily harm). In view of the very serious nature of the charge, he was refused bail and remained in custody in Brixton Prison until the hearing of his case several months later at the Central Criminal Court. At the hearing he pleaded guilty and mitigating evidence was produced confirming how hard he used to work, how well he sustained his family and the most important of all was the fact was his wife testified that she had totally forgiven him, wanted him home and wanted their family life to continue. In passing sentence the Old Bailey judge said as follows:

 “My dear fellow, you know your trouble is drink, it is this evil drink that causes you to behave like you did on that night, which is totally unacceptable. I don’t wish to send you to prison and thereby deprive your devoted wife and loving children of your financial support. I am sure you now realize that your problem is drink and nothing else, so you must promise me that when you go from this court today you will never, ever, again touch a drop of alcohol, not even a teeny weenie sherry before dinner.” [all in a very posh Eton and Oxford accent].

Case 2: Two gentlemen were apprehended while committing ‘an indecent act’ under Chelsea Bridge that traverses the River Thames. They pleaded guilty and on passing sentence the Old Bailey judge said to them:

“Not only did you commit this heinous act, but you chose to do so under what I consider to be one of London’s most beautiful bridges”. [all in a very posh Harrow and Cambridge accent].