Sir Alan Moses, the judge who jailed the Soham murderer Ian Huntley, has dismissed suggestions that members of the judiciary are “out of touch”.
The Court of Appeal judge said it was wrong to “even suggest” that judges were not in tune with public feeling. He also “deeply regretted” moves to stop judges wearing traditional wigs and gowns.
Sir Alan, who was a High Court judge when he presided over the Soham trial at the Old Bailey four years ago, was speaking on the BBC Radio Four programme, Between Ourselves.
Asked whether judges were “out of touch”, he replied: “It is the most monstrous suggestion I think.”
He added: “Is it suggested if we listened to the Arctic Monkeys rather than listening to the South Bank Symphonia we would be more in touch? Why?”
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He went on: “Don’t even think that we are not. Don’t even dare suggest that we are not.”
He said judges routinely heard details of life that most members of the public never experience, adding: “(I) have had to listen, because all 999 calls are recorded now, to a tape of a two-year-old saying: ’Don’t kill me daddy’.”
Sir Alan, 61, a barrister for nearly 40 years, said he thought judges should also continue to wear traditional dress.
“I thought it had been decided that, in civil cases, we will not be wearing wigs anymore,” he said. “I regret it deeply. I think we are losing the magic of our position and we blur in the eyes of the public the difference between the judge and the bureaucrat.”