Assaulting A Judge

A man has been jailed for three years for assaulting a judge during a hearing in a family court case.

In an incident in November last year, His Honour Judge Perusko was forced to leave the court twice amid verbal abuse from a 41-year-old businessman (who cannot be named). When the judge returned for a third time and again made the decision to leave, the defendant ‘picked up a laptop on the desk as well as an electric radiator’ and pursued the judge down the corridor, before pinning him against a wall and repeatedly punching him.

The defendant was later arrested. He was jailed for three years for assault occasioning actual bodily harm, criminal damage and for using threatening or abusive language in a separate incident against Recorder Dharmesh Patel, after taking ‘umbrage’ with a decision that judge made in July last year.

Obviously the incident has caused questions to be asked about the security arrangements in court at the time. Attacks on judges in England and Wales courtrooms are thankfully rare, with just one reported case in recent years.

Oliver Kew

Published on 13/06/2024