This splendid judge who will be sorely missed

My, how we are going to miss Sir James Munby when he steps down next year as our top family judge. In a succession of trenchant, sensible, humane judgments as head of the family courts since 2013, he has shown that he is well aware of how badly the whole system has gone off the rails. But last month, in announcing his retirement, he regretted what little success his brave bid to clean up the system seems to have had.

In his latest published judgment, Munby yet again care home and all the Portuguese authorities to hand over her brother, against his wishes, to Devon county council social workers, to take him back to a care home in England.

When she refused to sign a letter she regarded as “wholly improper” and “dishonest”, Mr Justice Newton sentenced her to six months for contempt of court. Arrested at dawn in front of her seven-year-old granddaughter, she was taken to prison without her family knowing for a long time where she was.

Colin Challenger, a barrister from another branch of the law, was so shocked by what had happened that he offered to represent her pro bono in taking her case to the Court of Appeal. Here, Munby and two other judges ordered her immediate release, on the grounds that she should never have been imprisoned in the first place.

Two more appeals followed at the instigation of Devon council, with its lawyers, including a QC, repeatedly complaining about Mrs Kirk’s “egregious conduct” in taking her brother to Portugal (where for 18 months he lived very happily until he recently died). Each time, Munby and his colleagues ruled against them.

Finally, this month Munby was asked to adjudicate on who should pay the costs of these appeals, which must have run to many thousands of pounds. He ruled that Mrs Kirk, who since 2014 has spent all her savings on this dreadful episode, should not pay a penny. As I say, his humanity and robust common sense will be sorely missed.