Police interviewing Jolyon Maugham

[fromorbit]

It seems the Rozzers may be too busy dealing with the fox killer to come after Mumsnet now.

Police question barrister Jolyon Maugham for tweeting that Brianna Ghey's killers 'exchanged transphobic slurs' while murder trial was still going on
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12893145/police-barrister-jolyon-maugham-brianna-ghey-tweet-killers-transphobic-slurs-trial.html

I’m pleased that people are being held accountable for such behaviour. A poster managed to get a thread deleted by arguing the toss about their right to publish speculation here.

Didn't the CPS say something too? Will the met be interviewing them?

Maughan says this:

And related, he also says this:

I wonder if the rise in TRActivism and awareness of the clash with the women's rights and harms to children, have led to more media coverage? Not a rise in hatred.

Perhaps the hysteria about the fragility of trans people by certain organisations has also made them feel more vulnerable?

And when can women report misogyny as a hate crime? Except we wouldn't because we are often desensitised to it, or simply don't have the time to be making reports every month.

I have not been questioned by the police, I was asked questions by the police at the behest of a high court judge.

That isn't quite the correction Jolyon thinks it is. He really does love his technicalities though.

I would be horrified if a judge high court or not sent police to my home to ask me questions about an ongoing court case. But then, I have never killed a fox with a baseball bat so.

He's not exactly a random on the internet. He identifies as a KC. They're held to very high standards surely? A KC posting his personal thoughts about children involved in a terrible murder trial during the case, oblivious to contempt of court guidelines defies belief.

That's displaying a shameful level of emotional incontinence for a legal professional.

I hate the way the police have been overtly politicised. Maugham should have known better, as a trained barrister( or is he a solicitor?) but I can’t crow over this.

it’s awful when the police are used as a TRA weapon against women; but this policing of TRA’s opinion is just as bad in the way that it concretises and embeds the political use of the police.

The arrest of Louise Distra was awful. It felt like a police state. But the police should not be used by either side.

And for the avoidance of all doubt I do not think that there is a “both sides are as bad” argument here. We are fighting desperately for our sex-based rights which men like Maugham are trying to undermine. But neither do I want to live in a state where the police are called to arrest anyone for wrongthink.

Move along,no hyperbolic flimflam to see here.

However, if Maugham was expressing a view publicly on a trial while it’s in progress he needs to be sternly dealt with. Best by the judiciary not the police. Suspended from practice for a while, perhaps?

I suppose a lot will depend on how Twitter is considered in terms of “publishing “ or “public comment.”

But neither do I want to live in a state where the police are called to arrest anyone for wrongthink.

It wasn't "wrong think" it was potential contempt of court. Someone in his position should know better.

I agree @Topofthemountain but in this case, it’s all adding to an atmosphere of policing of thought. But yes, if this is the usual process for contempt of court then I hope it’s followed through.

The police weren't being used by any side this wasn't about wrong think. They were asked, by a high court judge to have a word with Jolyon because he was tweeting things that were potential contempt of court.

Scotland have extremely strict contempt of court laws. He isn't being policed for wrong think, he's being policed for potentially breaking those specific laws.

I think it's really important to make this distinction between someone who should know better and a member of the general public.

It's clear that the killers' motivations were complicated and that Brianna was in the wrong place at the wrong time rather than being a specific target. We can all feel sad at the murder of a young person without trying to make the facts fit what we want them to be, not what they are.

'dipped in blood'?!

I'm usually impressed by law-affiliated bods at how measured and thoughtful their phrasing is.

For that reason, this is exceptionally surprising.

Plus that statement is so far down so many prejudiced rabbitholes it's downright weird.

For one, what 'transphobic hate', for two, to suggest a direct correlation between that and suicide is highly irresponsible, and for three to use the phrase 'dipped in blood' is not only weird but weirdly visceral and hugely distasteful given that he is talking about an actual child who was brutally murdered.

You are a horrible, horrible person, Jolyon Maugham.

This completely different to when TRAs use the police to go after women. It wasn’t because of women getting the police to do their bidding that JM was spoken to by the police.

Goes with the job

At least JM will have Fair Cop to turn to if it does turn out that the police have overstepped the mark.

Is the Bar Standards Board going to do anything about him? It's not the first time he's said something like this, and this was jeopardising an extremely sensitive and important trial.

I liked this twitter summary of the JM's 2023:

"Over the last year, Jolyon has blown £623,895 of crowdfunded donations on nine legal defeats in court, been forced to apologise to the Chair of the Environment Agency, launched a laughable boycott of Gail's bakeries, and narrowly avoided imprisonment for contempt of court."

As for Transphobia what do you call a rich man who grifts 100,000s of pounds from gender distressed people for cases which he is never going to win. He loses most of his cases because he is a technically a bad lawyer. He is good at making money.

Do we think JM was out there supporting this kind of stuff when there was NO money in it. Of course he wasn't. He specialised in taxation law for most of his career i.e making more money for rich people.

😂

For Jolyon Maugham the police are involved because what he said could have undermined the trial. It wouldn’t have mattered whose side he was on or what the topic was.

So it’s not a question of wrongthink, he simply didn’t follow the rules of the legal process - which as a KC who is fond of bringing cases against others he really has no excuse.