Maria Mcloughlin and what happened after court case

[EweSurname]

Apologies if there's already a thread - I had a look but couldn't see one.

Maria Mcloughlin has written a post about the aftermath of her court case and being compelled to use preferred pronouns.

www.peaktrans.org/district-judge-kenneth-grant/

It's infuriating to read and Maria's bravery and tenacity is incredible.

anyabike
@anyabike
Appalling decision by DJ Grant to require a witness to pretend under oath that her assailant was a woman; and by the JCIO to uphold that decision. This is compelled speech and a breach of Maria's art.9 / art.10 rights. See eg Ashers v Lee in SC.

Maria makes an important point though:

This echoes my own experience of having had countless people tell me it was the judge’s appalling behavior towards me that had been the last straw for them. The unlikely partnership of Wolf and Grant together helped peaktrans more people I could have dreamed of. More people are getting active, more people are fighting back.

Dear Attorney General

We last wrote to you to draw attention to the shocking defence used by men who had killed women in the course of a sexual encounter. How are you getting on with that scandal?

Now, can I draw to your attention a worrying development in the attitude of the judiciary and the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office towards female victims of male violence?

Can you explain R v Wolf 2018 where the judge scolded, punished and diminished the evidence of a crime victim who was recounting her experience "in her own words".

She was reprimanded - the sort of reprimand that is usually directed at people whom we suspect to have had words put into their mouths by others. It's extraordinary to hear of a case where the victim is punished for using her own words.

The judicial system has poor record on its treatment of women victims and witnesses. An examination of the handling of complaints about R v Wolf may help you to understand why.

Judge showed such misogyny. Had never read the evidence before and certainly it was an obvious miscarriage of justice!

Glad so many people were peak transed. Also the silver lining that we know what can happen now and be prepared not to submit to the ideology and use the pronouns we feel comfortable with, in court

That judge is an a-hole who needs a slap. The spelling is 'MacLachlan' by the way.

Appalling.

I've just had to google JCIO and found the complaints page. It seems to say you can't complain about a trial outcome, but you can complain about a member of the judiciary's personal conduct. Please forgive my ignorance, but does bullying a witness not count as shitty personal conduct?

judicialconduct.judiciary.gov.uk/making-a-complaint/

Bizarre that theauthors of the ‘Equal Treatment Bench Book’ understood that pronouns must be important to trans people, but nevergave it a single thought that they might be important to others too.

When I say ‘bizarre’, I mean misogynistic and unjust. Like Maria says, why was an impact assessmentnot done? Especially given someone had acknowledged the important of words.

Please forgive my ignorance, but does bullying a witness not count as shitty personal conduct?

Apparently not. According to the JCIO, a judge can basically do whatever s/he likes apart from fall asleep!