UK judges sacked for viewing porn videos in offices

Three British judges have been sacked while one resigned after they found watching pornographic materials on their office computers.

A disciplinary inquiry conducted against District Judge Timothy Bowles, immigration Judge Warren Grant and, deputy district Judge and Recorder Peter Bullock and Recorder Andrew Maw found them "inexcusably" misusing their IT accounts, a statement from the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office, JCIO, says.

"The Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice were satisfied that the material did not include images of children or any other illegal content”, it said.

Maw who was also found to have viewed similar inappropriate material resigned before he could be dismissed. In 2004, Maw jailed a biology teacher for eight months after he downloaded illegal images.

Viewing pornography is not illegal but doing so on office equipment is considered a serious act of misconduct that undermines public confidence in the judiciary.

“Well, this specific issue of viewing pornography, unfortunately, this has become a cultural practice. So, they may be an outcry because of the positions that these men hold and the fourth judge who was resigned before he was back. However, the issue of pornography has become more normal than, let’s say, thirty or forty years ago that is a serious problem in the society and there is a backlash against it”, Arzu Merali of Islamic Human Rights Commission, told Press TV.

The JCIO declined to say whether the images had been discovered during a routine internal audit. It, however, said the judges were not exchanging images or believed to be linked in any way.

Reports sayt the four judges would not face any criminal proceedings but the decisions mark an end of their judicial careers.

There is no appeal within the JCIO’s disciplinary procedure but dismissed judges can ask for the Judicial Appointments and Complaints Ombudsman to review the decision.

‘Sex scandals’

Sex scandal including child sex abuse in churches has been the topic of debate in the UK for years.

According to a report by the National Catholic Safeguarding Commission, Catholic Church in England and Wales defrocked 52 priests for sexual abuse since 2001.

The revelation is a fraction of church sex abuse scandals worldwide. In many cases, churches are accused of cover-up to protect rapists and pedophiles. Merali Head of Research, IHRC calls it a dangerous precedent.

 “But as we are seeing right now, the biggest scandal is the child abuse and child abuse rings at the center of the government that are coming up now. So, all the scandals are really just tip of the iceberg and sometimes it is just a distraction”,

Last year, Prime Minister David Cameron was plunged into a crisis after one of his ministers resigned over a sex scandal.

Brooks Newmark quit as Minister for Civil Society after caught sending explicit photographs of himself to women over the internet. 

Merali says the ruling elite have a different code of morality than an ordinary people suppose to have:

"Now we have come through decades of quite rapid social change and what we are getting now is the clash of libertarian culture of what everybody can do whatever that they like versus a real hankering for justice and correct behavior and a much higher moral code which cuts across communities really and we have great problem dividing communities here in United Kingdom certainly on issues like sexual ethics". 

HR/SKL

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