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The Magistrate's Blog (2005-2012)

This blog has migrated to www.magistratesblog.blogspot.co.uk This blog is anonymous, and Bystander's views are his and his alone. Where his views differ from the letter of the law, he will enforce the letter of the law because that is what he has sworn to do. If you think that you can identify a particular case from one of the posts you are wrong. Enough facts are changed to preserve the truth of the tale but to disguise its exact source.

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Location: Near London, United Kingdom

The blog is written by a retired JP, with over 30 years' experience on the Bench.

Monday, March 07, 2011

How Could They?

This report will fuel the 'why-oh-why' and the 'out-of-touch' fans in the dimmer tabloids.

A Muslim extremist who burnt poppies on the anniversary of Armistice Day was today fined £50.

The penalty imposed on Emdadur Choudhury, a member of Muslims Against Crusades (MAC), was immediately condemned as an “insult to Britain’s war dead”.


The sentencer is not a proper magistrate like me, but rather the Chief Magistrate, Howard Riddle, a District Judge (Magistrates' Courts).

He sentenced the offence, not the offender, and came in at a tad below the fixed penalty for a Section 5, but unlike an FPN case there will have been costs and surcharge to pay.

It was a sensitive case, but I suspect that he may have been right in treating it on a par with any other gobby street yobbo. If someone is looking for martyrdom, there is a lot to be said for denying it to him. I have done the same myself in the past, and it still seems to have been a good idea.

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