/

The Magistrate's Blog (2005-2012)

This blog has migrated to www.magistratesblog.blogspot.co.uk This blog is anonymous, and Bystander's views are his and his alone. Where his views differ from the letter of the law, he will enforce the letter of the law because that is what he has sworn to do. If you think that you can identify a particular case from one of the posts you are wrong. Enough facts are changed to preserve the truth of the tale but to disguise its exact source.

My Photo
Name:
Location: Near London, United Kingdom

The blog is written by a retired JP, with over 30 years' experience on the Bench.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Cell Phone

The recent case of a young man sent inside for two months for taking a photograph in a Crown Court has been widely reported - widely, but not all that accurately, as David Allen Green points out. I have sat on appeals with Judge Mensah on several occasions and she is as calm courteous and balanced as you would expect a Circuit Judge to be.

The sloppy journalistic habit of selective reporting of court proceedings, focusing on trying to find a 'why-oh-why' angle is one of the things that has eroded public confidence in the courts and fostered cynicism about justice. It has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished.

http://parkingattendant.blogspot.com/http://www.crimeline.info/