The Lord Chief Justice has shown he is capable of being the Lord High Executioner after he fired three judges for watching pornography on official court kit.
Although the three judges weren’t looking at material that’s illegal in the UK, both the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice described their use of official accounts as “wholly unacceptable” and “inexcusable”.
The three judges are Timothy Bowles, Warren Grand and Peter Bullock – they’ve had their legal judges wigs removed from their heads. A fourth judge, Andrew Maw, resigned before the official inquiry was completed.
It’s most unusual for English judges to be shown the door and losing three at the same time is not really going to raise the public’s estimation of the process of justice.
The fact is that all four people have been remarkably daft for using their official IT kit to look at naughty pictures – it’s all too easy for IT departments to see what users are getting up to in their spare time on machines that have been issued to functionaries and executives.
The material isn’t illegal and no one would have given a toss if they’d viewed the smut on machines they paid for themselves.
