Supporters of a senior judge who claimed she was subjected to judicial bullying, negligence and physical assault, have said she deserves an apology from her colleagues.
The ministry of justice and the judiciary last month offered to pay Judge Kalyani Kaul KC £50,000 in compensation after she alleged she had been bullied and mistreated by senior members of the judiciary. However, officials of the ministry said the offer of compensation did not mean an admission of liability.
She claimed Judge David Radford, who was the resident judge at Snaresbrook crown court in London had grabbed her arm and “dragged her across a corridor, digging his fingers into her arm where they remained, causing redness and tenderness”.
Kaul alleged that senior judges, including Lord Justice Rabinder Singh KC, who sits on the Court of Appeal, did not support her.
Kaul, 62, claimed others bullied her after she raised complaints about “disrespectful, discourteous, unprofessional and rude” barristers during a trial in 2015 at Snaresbrook crown court.
She sued the ministry, the justice secretary and the lord chief justice and the offer of compensation came a month before a High Court trial was scheduled to hear her claim.
Retired judge Claire Gilham, who won a landmark Supreme Court appeal in 2019 that gave whistleblowing protection to the judiciary, told The Times that any apology to Kaul would be “a reassurance to other judges that there is an ear to listen and an ability to acknowledge harm done”.
An apology to her “would be not just a welcome personal expression of regret but would be a useful beginning in bridging these issues, she said.
Gilham said the judiciary failed to learn lessons from past litigation and “struggled with the idea of having responsibilities for the health and welfare of the judiciary”.
The GMB union’s senior organiser Stuart Fegan said an apology should be “the first step on that path” towards rectification of failings.
“I’d hope that a mature employer such as the judiciary would recognise where there have been failings and take reasonable steps to try to rectify them,” Fegan told the newspaper.
