Lord Chief Justice MUST review Press ban from naming judge who put Sara Sharif in father’s care
Judge dreadful
IT is perhaps the most chilling court ruling we can recall.
The High Court’s Mr Justice Williams hid the identity of another judge who handed Sara Sharif to her abusive father in 2019 because, he said, the media couldn’t be trusted with it.
It is the duty of a free Press to question whether that family court ruling ultimately led to the circumstances which ended in the child’s torture and death.
But naming any of those who made it — despite Urfan Sharif’s violent record — could, Williams said, expose them to criticism he would consider unfair.
He even named one journalist he liked and another he didn’t.
This judge’s subjective biases and disdain for the media don’t enter into it.
Is he aware of “free expression”? Press freedom?
Or the peril of the secret justice he and others seem to want?
Open justice is under increasing assault . . . with judges frequently granting anonymity, even to convicted criminals in immigration cases.
Their rulings cannot be above Press scrutiny.
But how can they be held to account if one covers up for another?
This dangerous precedent rightly faces an Appeal Court challenge.
But the Lord Chief Justice should review this pompous fool’s fitness for the job.
Wrong track
BY any measure Labour’s rapid surrender to Aslef has proved an unmitigated disaster.
The then Transport Secretary Louise Haigh, an ex-Unite shop steward later outed as a convicted fraudster, gleefully gave the militants their hearts’ desire.
It was a calamity politically, handing already well-paid train drivers huge sums just as the Government stripped skint OAPs of their winter fuel allowance.
Also economically, since the huge bill fuelled the “black hole” Labour has desperately tried to pin on the Tories.
And Haigh’s replacement Heidi Alexander now admits it has brought chaos to the rail network as drivers shun the lucrative overtime they no longer need.
It should be better next year, though, she says . . . showing yet more worrying naivety about the unions’ desire ever to run a functioning service.
Moron mob
REMEMBER the Left instantly piling into the police over the viral video of the Manchester Airport brawl in July?
They needed no further evidence.
The cops were simply “racist”.
Two nights of protest over “police brutality” ensued.
Even Labour ministers couldn’t resist voicing their “concern”.
The full video then revealed a different story.
Now two brothers involved have been charged — and the police, after five long months, are in the clear.
It is terrifying how a one-sided video clip tempted so many to join a vengeful mob.