The Court of Appeal has allowed Rajiv Menon KC’s appeal against his referral to the High Court for contempt of court.
Mr Menon KC was referred by Mr Justice Johnson to the Administrative Court for it to decide what, if anything, to do about the content of Mr Menon’s speech to the jury in the trial of some Palestine Action protestors who broke into a factory in Bristol which made and sold arms to Israel. It was said that the speech breached an order that jury equity/the jury’s right to acquit according to conscience should not be mentioned. Edis LJ, sitting as a judge of the Administrative Court, then instituted contempt proceedings of his own motion for what had been said in the Crown Court before Johnson J.
In what is believed to be the first case of leading counsel being alleged to have committed contempt for a jury speech and the first case in which the Administrative Court sought to institute contempt proceedings of its own motion in such circumstances, the Court of Appeal held that the trial judge did not have jurisdiction to refer the matter directly to the High Court and the High Court did not have jurisdiction to institute contempt proceedings of its own motion. Instead, it should have first been referred to the Attorney General, who would have had to assess the public interest in proceeding. The Divisional Court therefore did not have jurisdiction to hear the case following the direct referral.
Adrian Waterman KC and Anthony Hudson KC acted for Rajiv Menon KC, instructed by Hickman & Rose.
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