‘Alice’ the lawyer gets dressing down from court

A MALE lawyer who appeared in court dressed in women’s clothes as a protest against what he said was New Zealand’s overly masculine judiciary has been suspended after being found to be in contempt of court.

The High Court ruled that Rob Moodie — a 68-year-old balding man who appeared in court in dresses and toting a handbag — was in contempt for circulating suppressed case documents outside the court.

Mr Moodie officially changed his name to “Miss Alice” as part of his protest against the “old boys’ network” that he said runs the nation’s judiciary, and was granted an award for the most bizarre conduct by a lawyer in 2006 by The Times newspaper.

The protest began after a coroner’s inquest largely blamed a farming couple for the collapse of a bridge, built by the army, on their property.

Mr Moodie obtained documents apportioning much of the blame for the collapse to faulty wood used by New Zealand Defence Force engineers, and posted the report on the internet despite a judge’s order that it not be distributed.

Mr Moodie was found guilty of contempt of court, suspended for three months, fined, and ordered to pay costs.

Mr Moodie announced after the ruling that he would quit law altogether and end his cross-dressing protest because he no longer needed to appear “in a 19th-century Alice in Wonderland environment that allows pomp, self-importance and deference to the court to eclipse the truth”.