Suspended magistrate is reinstated as review finds dismissal was
'disproportionate'
* Rachel Williams
* guardian.co.
A magistrate who was suspended for criticising the police is to be
reinstated after an independent review decided a recommendation to
dismiss her was "disproportionate" and the hearing that led to it was
flawed and unfair, the Guardian has learned.
Shay Clipson, who is believed to be the only Romany magistrate in
England and Wales, has not sat on the bench since November 2007, when
police officers in Humberside complained about telephone conversations
in which she mentioned she was a magistrate and accused police of
refusing to intervene to help protect her daughter from school bullies.
A conduct panel ruled that her actions raised concerns about her
impartiality in her judicial work and recommended she be removed.
Following a hearing in January last year, justice secretary Jack Straw
wrote to her saying: "We have concluded that although you acted with the
best interests of your daughter in mind, your behaviour has led to your
impartiality being brought into question."
But the review found there had been a failure to distinguish between
"legitimate criticisms of the quality of service provided by individual
officers as opposed to animosity towards the police service as a whole".
It recommended that Clipson, 51, from Grimsby, should be reinstated but
reprimanded and given more training, and criticised "several serious
shortcomings" of the original hearing before the Conduct Investigation
Panel.
"We felt that the panel hearing was procedurally flawed to such an
extent that Mrs Clipson did not receive a fair hearing," the review
said.
There were "elements of inconsistency" in the police case and a lack of
thoroughness in the questioning of the police witnesses which "gave the
impression of a partisan approach".
While the police complaint against Clipson refered to conversations with
five officers, only two appeared before the panel and she gave evidence
that she had never spoken to two of the others. An email from one of
them to the secretary to the panel received before the hearing stated
that he had no contact with Clipson, but it was not disclosed to her or
the panel.
"The panel was unable to find actual bias and yet they determined that
Mrs Clipson's impartiality may be rightly questioned, whether or not it
arose from actuality or perception," the review said. "This conclusion
is in our view flawed."
It added: "The panel found that there was no evidence to suggest the
complaint was maliciously motivated. We find this somewhat tenuous in
the light of the number of the officers orignially claimed to be backing
the complaint, when in fact two of those officers had no dealings
whatsoever with Mrs Clipson."
Clipson said she had been told disclosing the contents of the report
could result in further disciplinary action.
"But in all conscience I cannot remain silent," she said. "That report
is highly critical of the original disciplinary panel that recommended
that I should be removed from the bench.
"Whilst I would very much like to return to the bench, I cannot sit
there in the knowledge that certain people in the justice system and
police force locally can conduct themselves in this way. I feel that to
do so and remain silent would make me complicit, and that would be a
betrayal of trust to the community in which I serve.
"I realise that the powers that be do not want the bench brought into
disrepute, but it is not me that is doing so, and I feel that the
instruction that I should not disclose this is disreputable in itself."
A spokeswoman from the Judicial Communications office said: "Having
considered all the evidence available to it and also having spoken to
Mrs Clipson and received assurances over her future behaviour, the
review body felt that she should receive a reprimand rather than be
removed from the magistracy. The Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief
Justice have accepted the findings of the review body."
The spokeswoman said she could not comment on the findings because they
were confidential.
Http://www.guardian
reinstated-review
Monday, 16 February 2009
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