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Judge convicted of having dangerous dog makes foul-mouthed outburst.
It's not often:
1. A judge is in the dock
2. A judge is ticked off for chewing gum during the hearing
3. A judge is convicted
4. A judge swears loudly outside the court
I've been around courts a few years now, and I don't think I've seen any of the above, let alone all four at the same time.
Truly extraordinary.
Last edited by: Iffy on Tue 14 Dec 10 at 18:22
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I got the impression from the fine she got that her fellow judges are not impressed by her...
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...I got the impression from the fine she got that her fellow judges are not impressed by her...
I suspect that's right.
Having a wayward dog is neither here nor there.
But she has offended the dignity of the court process, which is far more serious.
The fine is means-tested to a limited extent and one imagines a crown court judge on about £115,000 a year will be towards the top of the list.
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Frederick 'Fritz' Becker was bitten.
"Alsation bites German"
Not much of a bite tho, it has to be said. Bit windy those GSD's.
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Have come across her professionally iffy ?
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Saw the headline earlier and assumed it was somebody who'd sat a few times as a recorder or deputy. However judging by the robes and her entry on the judiciary website she's a full circuit judge.
Presumably the disciplinary process will kick in pdq?
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...Have come across her professionally iffy ?...
Yes, many times.
She was a criminal barrister for many years before, as the story says, following the usual path of recorder and then full-time circuit judge in 2001.
She sat on the North East circuit, mostly at Newcastle Crown Court, but also at Durham, Teesside and very occasionally Carlisle.
Judge Bolton was regarded as an OK circuit judge, but for whatever reason she never really progressed to the tastier cases, and I wonder if there was a bit of resentment bubbling under which might explain the comment about never setting foot in a court again.
The crown court is a theatre and judges - and barristers - need a certain strength of personality as much as they need legal training.
I've always thought it harder for women to project that authority.
Judge Bolton has had a busy year, she's a resident of Rothbury and found herself, like so many others, almost under curfew when the Raoul Moat thing was kicking off.
She was sitting in Newcastle at the time and was late for a couple of days before arrangements were made to get her in and out of the village.
What happens to her next is interesting.
The outburst is neither here nor there, but I don't know if a judge can continue to sit after what is a fairly minor conviction.
My only reference point is a recorder (part-time trainee judge for those that don't know) who was caught kerb crawling while trying a case in Leeds a good few years ago.
He never sat on the judicial bench again, but he did continue as a barrister.
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The outburst won't have helped her - I got the impression from the reports that she was already an ex-Recorder...reading between the lines. I read a report in one of the online papers that potreyed the incident in a rather more sympathetic light, again very much between the lines that she had been "fitted up"....
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...I got the impression from the reports that she was already an ex-Recorder...
She was a current, sitting circuit crown court judge.
When this kicked off earlier this year we were told she was on leave.
I do know there was a previous allegation of her dog being out of control, which was dealt with outside of the court process.
When one or two of her barrister colleagues heard she'd been charged, they felt she had failed to take sufficient note of the earlier incident.
The hard-hearted advice was: "Best you shoot that damn dog before it costs you your career."
Last edited by: Iffy on Tue 14 Dec 10 at 19:49
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>> ...I got the impression from the reports that she was already an ex-Recorder...
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>> She was a current, sitting circuit crown court judge.
Not any more:
www.justice.gov.uk/news/judicial-appointments/judicial-030112-221.htm
Spotted a message from the 'Judicial Press Office' on this while looking for something on the Lawrence case.
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Neighbour lying around sunbathing with dog food smeared on his legs to encourage sampling by the rabid hound perhaps?
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This BBC report speaks of an apology for the outburst and an appeal against the conviction, so it looks like she's going for judicial rehabilitation.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-11993491
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Apology is a bit late and too obvious and if her dog bit a neghbour in HIS garden where does not guilty come from?
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...if her dog bit a neghbour in HIS garden where does not guilty come from?...
She's guilty at present.
Plenty of convicted people stand on the court steps and make bold statements about their intention to appeal.
Not all appeals are launched and not all that are launched are successful.
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She could try to argue on appeal that she wasn't negligent at all - the dog, perhaps unbeknown to her, had been watching a repeat of the Great Escape, built itself a glider and launched its bid for freedom from a bedroom window and gone for Fritz despite her having taken all reasonable care to lock it up.
Given the dog's apparent form, it would have to be a good story.
I wonder what Fritz's occupation is? Alsatian bites German shepherd would have made a good headline.
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It's surprisingly common for those dispensing laws and justice, policemen, judges, politicians etc to turn into lowlife caricatures when they themselves are on the receiving end of the system.
Last edited by: Robin Regal on Tue 14 Dec 10 at 21:26
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Exactly RR.....
Policeman the other day on trial for thumping a woman who admonished him for urinating in public is another case in point.....
Endless politicians fiddling expenses......
Methinks the judge will not be a judge much longer......
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Just noticed she is a fanatical Newcastle United supporter .... give it another couple of weeks and she will be in line for the managers job........
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Apparently she is under enormous strain and personal pressure - yeaah right! High 5 or low figure 6 figure salary and sending people to prison. It can't be easy.
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>> High 5 or low figure 6 figure salary and sending people to prison. It can't be easy.
No one likes a coarse, badly-behaved judge PP. There have been far too many over the years, most retiring with ill-deserved peerages.
However it seems not unlikely that this lady was suffering an age-related crisis. However unpleasant she may be in person, no one in their right mind (let alone a judge) would freak out in court like that. Unfortunate for her, but who knows, perhaps fortunate for those who might have been brought before her in court.
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We're all human - I remember one of my outbursts in work...:-0
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"We're all human - I remember one of my outbursts in work"
Remember a few weeks ago when Zero said he was going and came back two days later?
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...just noticed she is a fanatical Newcastle United supporter...
Season ticket holder for years.
She's been known to make dry football judgly-type remarks to the barristers, particularly one who is a Sunderland AFC season ticket holder.
Hardly vaudeville, but it's what passes for levity in a court.
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Looks a right battleaxe in the photo. Her "supporter" on the other hand could be taken for a Russian spy.
John
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Judges are an extraordinarily mixed bag. They run from a few saintly, high-minded and brilliant characters to the most deplorable drunken senile thugs and ruffians. I've never understood any aspect of the law including this one. Why aren't there any proper standards? Something to do with the structure of common law I suspect.
Drink problem in this case, unless it's early onset dementia. They are much the same in effect.
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Might have been raging PMT
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I am not familiar with these things, perhaps she was a late developer? My colleagues tell me that many women between the ages of 14 to their late 50s spend their whole lives in various degrees of hormone rage!
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You must have a very sheltered life Meldrew - half the population a complete mystery to you, and another half whose speech is indecipherable ;-)
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Perhaps he's a polititian?
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That's perhaps why I live in sheltered housing :<} I think if we were honest many would admit to being mystified by many of the female element of the population; not understanding Neil Oliver, two people in Morpeth and one in a call centre doesn't really make up the other half!
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think in the case PMT may mean *issed most thursdays.
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>> think in the case PMT may mean *issed most thursdays.
And/or Tuesdays
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I kind of like the idea of judiciary being mere mortals who have done "stuff", while not wanting corrupt crooks on the bench, its not good to have the outrageously righteous and moral on the bench either.
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Agreed Zero, of course. They can't pretend to understand us or the world we live in if they have kept their hooters clean and shining from the cradle to the bench, as even politicians have to pretend they have done these days...
This is a sad case. The poor lady has simply gone a bit potty for a while under external and internal stress we know nothing about. Some of the press detail did sort of suggest that the neighbours might have been a bit prickly and perhaps underhand in their behaviour, but the indications are few and discreet. I don't think I would go running to the fuzz if the neighbours' dog gave me a small nip. I would kick the dog extremely hard.
One thing one really doesn't want is to be sharing anything, even a fence let alone a lawn, with uptight PITA neighbours with nothing better to do all day than monitor their own rights and prerogatives. Or, I suppose, with arrogant PITAs with a high regard for themselves and ill-trained large noisy dogs.
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An extraordinary outburst - madf
