Leading judges today spoke out against secret justice, saying an open court system is a “fundamental principle”.
The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, Lord Judge, and Sir James Munby, who is president of both the High Court’s Family Division and the Court of Protection, made it clear that “there are never any circumstances” in which anyone found guilty in cases of contempt of court can be sent to prison without the public being told.
Their new guidance for the judiciary comes in the wake of reports that a woman was jailed in secret for contempt for disobeying orders from the Court of Protection relating to care for her 80-year-old father, who was suffering from dementia.
The two judges issued the guidance at a brief hearing at London’s Royal Courts of Justice.
