These are some of the most scathing comments and put downs by Oxford's judges last year.
‘Sick to death of thuggery’
Recorder John Ryder QC tore into ‘thuggish’ behaviour as he sentenced a Formula 1 engineer for an attack at a Bicester pub in 2019.
Christopher Slatter, 32 when he was sentenced in July, was spared an immediate prison sentence – but the part-time judge lambasted his actions.
Recorder Ryder told Slatter’s barrister: “Quite frankly, members of the public are sick to death of going to places in which they should be able safely to enjoy themselves, where the atmosphere is entirely ruined by thuggish behaviour.”
He added: “What is to be done? How is this culture of immediate resort to violence going to be addressed? What’s the answer to it?”
READ MORE: Judge says people are 'sick to death of thuggish behaviour' as he sentences pub attack
‘I’m not a priest’
Judge Michael Gledhill QC told a woman appealing her driving conviction he was ‘not a priest, I’m a judge of English law’ – after he was asked if he was ‘familiar with the premise that all of English law is dependent upon biblical law’.
Henley woman Sonia Dundury, 51, had sought to appeal her conviction and £660 fine for failing to identify the driver of a Chrysler caught doing 36mph in a 30 zone in Marlow, Bucks, on March 17, 2020.
She was represented in court by a ‘Mckenzie friend’, the name given to someone without legal training but allowed by the judge to help a defendant represent themselves.
The ‘friend’, who gave his name as Mike Mathewson, was asked by Judge Michael Gledhill QC if he had any questions for Thames Valley Police staff member Caroline Speed, who detailed the letters the police had sent to Ms Dundury’s home telling her of the speeding offence and asking her to identify who had been driving the Chrysler in March.
“Are you familiar with the premise that all of English law and all of English legislation sits squarely upon and is dependent upon biblical law?” he asked the judge, who had already reminded him he was asking questions of the witness rather than the bench.
Judge Gledhill replied: “That is not an appropriate question for this witness or indeed any witness.”
The friend’s claim there was a requirement for the ‘testimony of two or three witnesses’ found little favour with the judge.
The judge, who as a practising barrister once represented pressure group Christian Voice in their libel action alleging blasphemy by Jerry Springer the Opera, told him: “I’m not dealing with biblical law. I’m not a Rabbi, I’m not a priest, I’m a judge of English law.”
When the friend went on to claim that the Criminal Procedure Rules, the rulebook for how criminal courts are run, required the testimony of ‘two or three witnesses’, Judge Gledhill bit back: “You are here to assist. You are not assisting.”
He warned the ‘friend’ that if he asked another ‘irrelevant’ question he would be asked to leave the courtroom.
The appeal was eventually withdrawn by Ms Dundury.
‘Swaggering bully’
Former champion weightlifter Shane Hare, 32, bombarded his ex-girlfriend with bullying messages.
He also got a friend to send the woman a photograph of her new partner’s home, issuing the ultimatum that he wanted £500 or he would be ‘coming over tonight’.
A friend who overheard one conversation between Hare and his ex was told she’d ‘get it as well’.
Sentencing him to 23 months’ imprisonment suspended for two years, Judge Maria Lamb told Hare: “It strikes me, reading these papers, that certainly the picture which you presented over Christmas 2019 going into 2020 was one of a swaggering bully with a significant record for violence.
“These were thoroughly unpleasant messages. Whatever the situation was about what may or may not have passed between you, this was behaviour which was wholly unacceptable.”
READ MORE: 'Swaggering bully' sent vile messages to ex-partner
‘It’s appalling to see a man in your position here’
Kieron Keeble took a photograph up a colleague’s skirt and pawed the woman while he was working for Oxford city council.
Giving him 12 months’ imprisonment suspended for two years after jurors found him guilty of outraging public decency and sexual assault by touching, Judge Michael Gledhill QC branded him a pervert and said there was nothing amusing about the upskirting picture.
“It was not a prank. You have told lie upon lie in my view about what happened throughout these various incidents but particularly in Christ Church Meadow,” he said, adding it had been ‘no accident’ that the photograph was taken.
Judge Gledhill told the Oxfordshire dad: “It’s appalling to see a man of your background, a hardworking man of previous good character standing in the dock of this court aged 63.
“Your behaviour towards your colleague was shocking and quite frankly disgusting. You made her life intolerable.
“You have just heard read out her victim impact statement, written some time ago now, but you have seen the distress that she exhibited when she gave evidence by reliving the ordeal you put her through. You ought to be completely and utterly ashamed of yourself.
“I have seen your wife, your daughter and one of your sons sitting day after day at this court listening and watching what you did to your victim and goodness knows what was going through their minds.
“Their husband and father has been shown to be a pervert. Nothing less than that would describe what you did.”
READ MORE: Former city council worker took image under woman's skirt as she stopped to photograph squirrel
‘What your children must think of you’
Wheelchair-bound dad John Washbourne stole thousands from his elderly mother.
Sentencing him to six months’ imprisonment suspended for two years, Recorder John Hardy QC said: “However you dress this case up, whatever guise you draw over it, the fact is you committed a despicable offence of dishonesty against an elderly lady who was not merely elderly and infirm but also your mother.
“What your children must think of you I don’t know and I am not going to ask, but I hope they have no intention of doing to you what you did to your mother.”
Deciding to suspend the prison time rather than jail him immediately, the judge noted that the £2,274 Washbourne stole in 2018 and 2019 was a ‘relatively small’ sum and he had an unblemished record for crimes of dishonesty.
READ MORE: Man stole thousands of pounds from elderly mother
‘You gave away chance after chance’
Burglar Ashley Ellison was jailed for 18 months after throwing away ‘chance after chance’.
He had been given a two year suspended prison sentence in 2020 for breaking into a Bicester garage.
After a year, he had managed to do just nine-and-a-half hours of the 100 hours of unpaid work he’d been ordered to do as part of the suspended sentence.
Sending Ellison to prison, Judge Michael Gledhill QC said: “You know as well as I do the probation service, Turning Point and myself to some extent have done everything we possibly can to keep you from going to prison.
“You have committed no further criminal offences. You’ve done your best in the state you are to comply, I understand that, but in fact your best wasn’t good enough.
“You’ve been given chance after chance and you’ve thrown it away.”
READ MORE: Burglar who threw away 'chance after chance' is jailed
‘You’re a one man crime wave’
Notorious thief Arron Gardner slashed a Good Samaritan with a Nando’s chicken restaurant table marker – and committed a raft of other offences.
Jailing him for a total of 22-and-a-half months in September, Judge Michael Gledhill QC said: “You’re a one man crime wave.”
His catalogue of crimes included spitting at a police officer, which the judge described as a ‘dreadful offence’.
Arron Gardner's custody shot Picture: TVP
Gardner was told: “It might not in fact have caused physical harm but the effect on that officer at the time and before she realised following the medical intervention that there were no serious consequences must have been terrible.”
Noting the thief had already spent nine months in custody, he added: “It won’t be terribly long before you are released, but you don’t need me to tell you [that] you can’t carry on like this.”
READ MORE: 'One man crime wave' used chicken-topped Nando's table marker to make threats
‘Mean and despicable’
Teen burglar Curtis Brough broke into the Oxford home of the couple who had taken him in.
He cried in the dock at Oxford Crown Court when he was told he would be spared an immediate prison sentence.
Imposing a year’s imprisonment suspended for 12 months, Recorder John Hardy QC said: “It was a mean, despicable and calculated offence, biting the hand of those who had fed you.”
The judge noted that Brough had moved away from the area and his life had improved.
READ MORE: Burglar 'bit the hand that fed him', blasts judge
'Ghastly and depraved'
A paedophile who logged onto sick underage sex shows using the usernames ‘scallyperv’ and ‘pervtastic’.
Sheldon Gould was caught watching the sessions on Zoom by Canadian police, who were investigating an online paedophile ring.
Police raided his flat in 2017 and discovered recordings of the Zoom sessions and the Skype message threads.
In interview, Gould claimed he’d invited men he’d met on the internet back to his flat for ‘chemsex’ parties and the men may have played the indecent material in the background while they were having sex.
In Skype messages on an LG mobile phone found next to his bed, the defendant and others spoke about children in highly sexualised terms. Gould claimed that he ‘did a six-year-old’, with another saying the boys were ‘so lucky’ to have the defendant to ‘teach’ them.
Recorder John Hardy QC spared him an immediate prison sentence in August, but described the offending as ‘serious, ghastly and the materials depraved’.
At an earlier hearing, which Gould could not attend due to ill health, Recorder Hardy paraphrased from the bible to describe
Paraphrasing the book of Isiah, Recorder Hardy described Gould, of Elizabeth Jennings Way, Oxford, as a ‘man of sorrows and acquainted with grief’. He added: “Acquainted quite intimately with Radcliffe Hospital, as it happens.”
READ MORE: ‘Pervtastic’ logged onto Zoom sex shows
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