1 June 2013.
..with our Courts and Justice system.
I am not just talking about how British justice and fair play has been undermined with Labour's Criminal Rights Act, but something even worse.
A man is reported to have been sent to jail for contempt of court..... fair enough so far - but.
What landed him in jail was wishing his son a happy birthday on Facebook. His son was 21 years old and was brought up by his father after getting custody in a difficult and acrimonious divorce. The court battle ended up with him being banned from mentioning his son's name in public and that is the 'contempt of court' offence for which he was jailed by the family court. Normally in such circumstances these kind of bans are lifted when the child reaches 18 but in this case there was no 'sunset clause. The man in question, Garry Johnson has the full support of his son and MP, John Baron and other MPs.
Is there now a ban on judges exercising common sense?
Or is it that this judge just has no common sense?
Whichever it is something is wrong when a man can be jailed like this. Are our courts not full up enough already? These days in our mad system even burgulars can get let off jail.
Our criminal justice system is a joke and not fit for purpose.
So...presumably it is commonplace for a parent to be forbidden by a court to make public mention of their child's name, under threat of imprisonment for contempt.
I wonder what is worse:-
1-That each and every conviction for theft is not met by a prison sentence.
2-That a specific order from a legitimate court can be ignored at will.
Mind you, if obeying an order from a court is a matter of personal fancy, every prison sentence handed down could mean that the 'prisoner' is set free.