Serving judges with criminal records

Dear Mr McDowall,

Your request for information as follows has been passed to me:

Please confirm how many currently serving judges have a criminal
record.

Please confirm how many offences are of a:

(1) sexual nature (2) violence related nature (3) fraud and
dishonesty

Judges are required to be of good character and this is incompatible with
having any serious criminal conviction. Applicants for judicial office
have to declare any convictions, and their criminal records are also
checked with the police. It is possible for someone with convictions for
minor motoring offences to be appointed, but we keep no record of how many
judges have such convictions prior to appointment and it is therefore
impossible to provide you with that information.

Serving judges are also required to notify us of any convictions. It is
possible for a judge to continue serving after receiving a conviction for
a minor motoring offence, but we have no record of how many judges acquire
such convictions after appointment and therefore cannot provide you with
that information.

If a judge were to be convicted of a more serious offence, including any
offence of the types you have listed, he would be subject to a
disciplinary process and would almost certainly be removed from office,
either by The Queen after votes in both Houses of Parliament (in the case
of High Court Judges and above), or by the Lord Chancellor with the
consent of the Lord Chief Justice (in the case of Circuit Judges and
below).

I am not aware of any serving judge who has any serious criminal
conviction. The last such case to occur was His Honour Judge Bruce
Campbell, a Circuit Judge who was convicted of smuggling and was removed
from office by Lord Hailsham in 1983. More recently, in 1998, His Honour
Judge Richard Gee was tried at the Old Bailey for having allegedly
assisted mortgage fraud when he had been a solicitor, but the jury failed
to reach a verdict after three weeks and the Attorney General entered a
Nolle Prosequi to prevent a retrial (having initially sought one) because
of concerns about the judge's health. He resigned from the Bench in 1999.

I hope this is helpful.

Jonathan Creer

Head of Judicial HR Services

The Judicial Office

020 7073 1628

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