Black Benchmark
It would, I suppose, be unduly restrictive to suggest that the proper province of a judge is to try the case in hand, and that his duty ends there; but it is only too apparent that when members of the bench take it upon themselves to address the general public the results are frequently un- fortunate. One example, occurred in the Court of Criminal Appeal a few days ago, when the case before the Court was that of a homosexual who had continued to 'pester' his former boy-friend after the young man had married and had a child. Turning down the appeal (against a three- year prison sentence) Mr. Justice Melford Stevenson was reported in the press as having said, 'It is an example of which note might be taken by the well-meaning people who are now overflowing with sympathy for this type of offender.'
. This was a doubly unfortunate remark, since it could so easily have been taken as an implied rebuke to MPs and others who had supported Humphry Berkeley's Sexual Offences Bill in the old Parliament and who, I hope, will have an early opportunity to do the same in the new
Parliament. As the young man in the case, it even now under twenty-one, and since the Sexual Offences Bill sought to legitimise homosexual conduct only between consenting adults (it even proposed increasing the penalties where minors are concerned) the judge's homily is totally irrele- vant to this and could only mislead. Berkeley, incidentally, is in serious danger of defeat at Lancaster this time. Parliament can ill afford to lose this erratically brilliant and bravely inde- pendent young Tory. I hope desperately that the electors of Lancaster realise what they are about. Mercy
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