JUSTICE? Judge gets reprimand after offering to pay fine for girl who stabbed paedophile
A JUDGE has been found guilty of misconduct after offering to pay the fine of a teenage girl who stabbed a paedophile who abused her when she was eight years old.
By ROSS LOGAN
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Judge Jonathan Durham Hall told the 15-year-old not to pay the obligatory victim surcharge after she pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent.
Sentencing her to a rehabilitation order, he told her: "If anyone tries to force you [to pay], I will pay it myself."
His comments were investigated by the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office and were found to amount to misconduct.
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He received the lowest possible punishment, in the form of formal advice, according to the Times.
Judge Hall was presiding over the case at Bradford Crown Court in April last year, when he made the comments.
The girl, then aged 14, had gone to the home of her 56-year-old abuser armed with a large kitchen knife.
She told him on his doorstep: "I'm going to kill you", before plunging the blade into his chest, in front of the man's two young children.
The knife narrowly avoided his heart but severed an artery supplying blood to his right ventricle.
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After the stabbing, the teenager reportedly hugged her aunt, asked her to tell her mum she loved her, and handed herself into police.
Her abuser survived, but required a blood transfusion and spent time in intensive care.
The court had heard that the girl was sexually abused by the man when she was eight years old - but he was only given a community order for the offence.
This led her to feeling let down by the justice system, while the man allegedly harassed and bullied her after his trial.
The girl had initially been charged with attempted murder but prosecutors eventually accepted her plea of guilty to grievous bodily harm with intent.
Judge Hall refused to jail the girl, saying: "It would be a disgrace to send a survivor like you to prison."
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