A post shared nearly 100,000 times on Facebook claims to show a picture of a judge who refused to a jail a 15 year-old girl who stabbed a man who’d abused her. Instead, it says, the judge fined the girl, then offered to pay the fine for her.
This really did happen and the case was widely reported a few years ago, although some of the details in the Facebook post are not quite right. The man in the picture is Jonathan Durham Hall QC. In 2016, he chose not to jail a 15 year-old girl who had stabbed a man who had sexually assaulted her when she was eight years-old. The man who had assaulted her had been given a community order in 2010 after being convicted.
The girl pleaded guilty to wounding with intent and was given a two year youth rehabilitation order, and told to pay a victim surcharge (which defendants are ordered to pay when they’re sentenced—it’s different to a fine). During sentencing, the judge said he would pay the victim surcharge himself if she was forced to pay it.
The judge was investigated by the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office, which said his comments “amounted to misconduct”. He was issued “with formal advice”, which is the least severe disciplinary action the office can take.