Judgment Approved by the court for handing down.
Solicitor General v Millinder
prohibition, and of the sanctions for breach, in advance of the hearing. This enables
the orderly administration of justice.
33.
Bearing in mind and giving due weight to the principle of open justice,
notwithstanding the complete absence of any access request and the failure to follow
the requisite procedure, the Divisional Court was prepared to consider making a
direction under section 85A. Therefore, on learning that Mr Millinder had shared the
link with four other individuals, whose names were supplied but who did not turn on
their cameras, each of those individuals was asked in turn to supply the Court with
their email addresses and to unmute their microphones so that they could confirm
(orally) that they understood that they were not allowed to record or transmit the
proceedings. There was no response to those requests.
34.
These proceedings did not raise any particular issues of wider public importance, and
the media and the general public were able to attend the hearing in open court. The
Court had no idea of the whereabouts of the individuals to whom Mr Millinder had
passed on the link, and they were clearly unwilling to sufficiently identify themselves
remotely, a statutory requirement which cannot be relaxed. The Court was far from
satisfied that affording remote access to individuals associated with Mr Millinder who
were not prepared to even engage with the Court’s requests for belated compliance
with the statutory requirements, would be compatible with the interests of justice.
35.
In those circumstances, the Court was not prepared to make a direction for remote
observation of its own motion. It therefore directed that the links be terminated to all
but one of the individuals, a Mr Walsh, whose company Deuda Ltd had made an
application which was listed to be heard on the same occasion as the contempt
proceedings, and who might therefore be legitimately characterised as a participant.
Mr Walsh was given the opportunity to make representations in respect of that
application, which was dismissed for reasons given in a short ex tempore judgment
delivered orally at the hearing.
Recusal
36.
Shortly before the hearing, an email was sent by Mr Millinder to the Administrative
Court Office which, among other matters, said the following:
“I note that Andrews LJ has been re-installed into this case, acting
knowingly in conflict. I allege that Andrews LJ perverted the course
of justice by suppressing all my evidence of criminality during the
void s.42 proceedings. The evidence supports that conclusion. Judges
who collude and pervert the course of public justice, acting with
favour and ill-will to conceal criminality are not judges, they are
criminal offenders. You, Andrews LJ, are proven to have done that
…. The Court is not properly constituted.”
37.
In the light of this missive, I inquired of Mr Millinder at the start of the hearing
whether he was asking me to recuse myself from hearing the committal application on
the basis that I had been a member of the constitution of the Divisional Court which
made the section 42 order. Mr Millinder said no, he was not objecting to my hearing
the application, although that was not going to stop him from repeating his allegation
that I had conspired to pervert the course of justice.
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