The Campaign against secret justice in the English
Family Courts began in 1995 with Dr Pelling objecting to participating
in a trial about his rights as a parent from which the press and
public were excluded, with even the court's decision suppressed.
Although both Pelling and his wife wanted it, he
even lost his appeal against the hearing as to costs being held
in secret.
The
resulting Open Justice Campaign led
to a test
case in the Court of Appeal [LINK TO JUDGMENT OF CA 20 JUNE 1996]
and eventually to Dr Pelling's appearance at the European Court
of Human Rights in November 2000, the first ever unrepresented
non-lawyer applicant to be allowed to address the Court.
Article
6(1) of the Convention that "Judgment shall be pronounced
publicly". In a perverse ECHR
5-2 majority judgment conflicting
with its previous case-law, the Court refused to uphold the mandatory
unqualified terms of the Convention. Disgracefully, the English
judge, Sir Nicholas Bratza, of the Court, abandoned traditional
English law principles of statutory construction and voted with
the majority.
 In
January 2003 Dr Pelling was so disgusted at the behaviour of a
High Court Judge, Mr Justice Singer, who emotionally abused and
tormented a 10-year old boy in the corridor outside his Courtroom,
because he refused to comply with the Judge's order to go and stay
with his Mother who had physically abused the boy, that Dr Pelling
wrote and published a special edition of the occasional journal "CONTACT" on
Family law matters, which he edited.
Dr
Pelling was at Court with the boy and his Father Mr Abdul Matin
that day and became directly involved when he intervened
to expose the CAFCASS Reporter's lies to the boy Forhad Matin to
the effect that his Father had left the Court so he would have
no choice but to go with his Mother. When Dr Pelling sought to
comfort the distressed child, the Assistant Tipstaff intervened
and assaulted Dr Pelling. Dr Pelling sued the Tipstaff and was
subsequently awarded damages and
costs.
Besides
writing up the story of Forhad Matin and Mr Justice Singer in CONTACT
No5 (April
2003) (which was also published
in an Internet version and circulated worldwide)
Dr Pelling publicised the fiasco at the European Court in relation
to the secrecy of
the English Family courts and deliberately printed the whole of
the original 1996 County Court Residence Judgment which the Court
of Appeal and then Strasbourg had ruled should not be "publicly
pronounced".
This
was a calculated editorial decision based on the Human Rights
Act 1998 now being in force in the United Kingdom,
so that the Article 6(1) principle that "Judgment shall be
pronounced publicly" now applied directly as part of English
law, and therefore the Judgment could now be lawfully published.
Strasbourg decisions do not bind the English courts. Mr
Justice Singer complained about Dr Pelling to the Attorney-General.
CONTACT No.5
also came to the attention of the Attorney-General (indeed Dr Pelling
sent him a copy). The Attorney wrote to Dr
Pelling in July 2003
. Dr Pelling refused to concede
any misconduct on his part and the Attorney instituted criminal
contempt proceedings against Dr Pelling in December 2003. There
are 3 counts of contempt:-
- Interfering with the administration of justice by telling
the truth to the child, and exposing the CAFCASS Reporter's
lies, in the Matin case of 23
January 2003;
- Publishing an account in CONTACT No.5 of Mr
Justice Singer's child abuse of Forhad Matin on 23 January 2003;
- Publishing the 1996 Residence Judgment in Dr Pelling's
son's case in CONTACT No.5.
LINK
TO A-G SUMMONS
The Contempt Summons was issued by the A-G in the Family Division
but Dr Pelling then pointed out that Count 3 had to be severed
and brought separately in the Queen's Bench Divisional Court, so
the A-G had to start again on that part. In due course he obtained
the necessary Leave from the Divisional Court on 30 March 2004,
and the separate proceedings on Count 3 are now underway in the
Queen's Bench Division. Trial dates for the two Contempt proceedings
are not yet fixed. |
