‘Ms judge’ savages male colleague for his outdated view on rape

A JUDGE who ruled a woman could not have been raped by her violent husband because she did not fight back was savaged yesterday by a senior colleague.

Judge Robin Tolson was severely criticised by Ms Justice Russell in an appeal decision which said he had made ‘multiple errors of law’ to arrive at his judgment, which was ‘so flawed as to require a retrial’.

His ruling had come in a family court case last year involving a sepappealed, arated couple’s battle over the father’s right to see their four-yearold son – with the 23- year- old mother objecting and saying her ex had been controlling and raped her.

Following the judgment the woman claiming the judge had ‘outdated views’, and the case went to the High Court, where the allegations of domestic violence were reassessed.

Yesterday Ms Justice Russell, the first judge to adopt Ms as her official title, said Judge Tolson had ignored 15 years of progress in rape law.

She added: ‘ This is a senior judge ... expressing a view that, in his judgment, it is not only

Overruled: Judge Robin Tolson and, right, Ms Justice Russell permissible but also acceptable for penetration to continue after the complainant has said no ... but also that a complainant must and should physically resist penetration, in order to establish a lack of consent.

‘The logical conclusion ... is that it is lawful and acceptable for a man to have sex with his partner regardless of their ... willingness to participate.’ Ms

Justice Russell said that in future family judges will get extra training on the law governing rape and sexual assault to match that given to judges who sit in serious sex cases in the criminal courts.

In the case heard by Judge Tolson in August at London’s Central Family Court the mother alleged she had twice been forced to have sex against her will. But Judge Tolson said he was concerned that ‘the mother did nothing physically to stop the father’ and concluded: ‘This was not rape.’

Judge Tolson, 61, a widower and father of two, has been the leading judge at the Central Family Court since 2015. Two years ago he was attacked outside the court by an angry father in one of his cases.