Judge offers to pay fine for teenager.

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  • A judge who offered to pay a court fine for a teenager who stabbed her paedophile abuser has been found guilty of misconduct.

    Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC made the offer after hearing the Bradford girl’s case.
    The teenager, then aged 14, had stabbed her abuser six years after he walked free from court, despite assaulting her when she was eight years old.

    The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was charged with attempted murder, but prosecutors eventually accepted a lighter charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

    Judge Hall sentenced the teenager to a two-year youth rehabilitation order and told her not to pay the mandatory victim surcharge, adding: “If anyone tries to force you, I will pay it myself.”

    The decision prompted an investigation by the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office, which found his comments amounted to misconduct.

    Independent article

    I don't normally agree with people who are convicted of stabbing someone being let off so lightly but I think that in this case, the judge made a wise, and just, decision.

  • I don't normally agree with people who are convicted of stabbing someone being let off so lightly but I think that in this case, the judge made a wise, and just, decision.

    But, then why sentence her in the first place?

    Either she did wrong, or she did not. It is not for judges to get "personal," judges are there to apply the law and that is it.

  • But, then why sentence her in the first place?

    Either she did wrong, or she did not. It is not for judges to get "personal," judges are there to apply the law and that is it.

    I presume that since the prosecutors eventually accepted a lighter charge, a deal was done and she pleaded guilty to that so the judge had no choice but to give her some sort of minimal sentence.

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