Jennifer James tackles courtroom controversy
According to Daniel Martin, writing in the Daily Mail on Monday 23 April 2012, taxpayers could be left with a £300,000 bill for a contempt of court case against former cabinet minister Peter Hain. In his memoirs, Hain attacked Paul Girvan LJ for his handling of a legal challenge to his (Hain’s) appointment of Bertha McDougall. McDougall, since awarded an OBE, is listed as interim commissioner for victims and survivors of the troubles, a post in which she might be expected to have exceptional insight, as her husband Lindsay was killed by the Irish National Liberation Army back in 1981 while serving as a reservist with the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
Scandalising the court
The former Northern Ireland secretary is evidently being prosecuted for “unwarranted abuse of a judge” under the rarely used 18th century offence of “scandalising the court”, this being centred upon a passage in Hain’s memoirs in which he is critical of how Girvan LJ handled this matter.
David Davis, the former shadow home secretary who tabled a Commons motion condemning the prosecution, since signed
