Judge who cleared IDS cone activists was taken to task over political remark

Chief magistrate was given formal advice after seeming to endorse Palestinian cause in previous hearing

THE chief magistrate who cleared the protesters accused of threatening Sir Iain Duncan Smith has previously been officially rebuked for appearing to endorse a political cause.

Paul Goldspring, chief magistrate and a senior district judge, cleared a man accused of assaulting the former Tory leader by “slamming” a traffic cone on his head and two other protesters who were alleged to have threatened and abused Sir Iain.

Tory MPS were “astonished” at the judgment which, they said, sent out a message that politicians were now “fair game”. “Seemingly you can now walk down the street screaming abuse at a politician, and your right to protest trumps their right not to be intimidated. No matter how threatening the behaviour of protesters is, no action will be taken against them,” said one senior Tory MP.

Mr Goldspring said the case against two of the protesters centred on their use of the phrase “Tory scum” as they followed Sir Iain, his wife and her friend along Portland Street in Manchester.

The chief magistrate said using that phrase in the context of them following Sir Iain was “both insulting and pejorative, and I don’t accept that that wasn’t their intention”.

But he accepted that this behaviour was “reasonable” in the context of Articles 10 and 11 of the Human Rights Act, the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and association.

He said: “The courts do not criminalise free speech. The Crown has not shown me it is proportionate to criminalise those words.”

However, it has emerged that Mr Goldspring was previously rebuked for making politically contentious comments during a previous court hearing.

The Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO) issued “formal advice” to Mr Goldspring after he “gave the impression that he endorsed” the Palestinian cause in one of his judgments.

It followed a private complaint from a Jewish activist in December 2021.

The JCIO said Mr Goldspring’s conduct had “fallen below the standards expected”, acknowledging that support for Palestine was a “contentious political cause”. It added that the Lord Chief Justice and Lord Chancellor “took into account… the judge had accepted his remarks were capable of giving such an impression and had expressed regret”.

It stems from Mr Goldspring’s comments to Feras al-jayoosi, who wore Hamas and Islamic Jihad T-shirts in Golders Green in June 2021, saying that while his support for the Palestinian cause was “worthy”, his backing for political violence was not.

Mr Goldspring was appointed as chief magistrate in February last year.