Fired UK judges ‘watched porn at work’

Three judges who allegedly viewed pornography on official IT equipment at work were sacked for “wholly unacceptable” behaviour and a fourth has resigned, the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO) said.

It announced that District Judge Timothy Bowles from Romford County Court, London Immigration Judge Warren Grant and deputy district judge and Recorder Peter Bullock, who worked on the North Eastern Circuit, have been removed from office. Recorder Andrew Maw, who worked in the Midlands Region, resigned in September, aged 65, before the disciplinary process ended.

A JCIO spokesman said: “The Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice were satisfied that the material did not include images of children or any other illegal content, but concluded that this was an inexcusable misuse of their judicial IT accounts and wholly unacceptable conduct for a judicial office-holder.”

Maw was found to have watched similar “inappropriate” material on his judicial IT account and would have been removed had he not resigned.

The men were not linked, the JCIO said. It would not reveal further details of its investigations into the judges’ conduct, nor how the allegations against the men came to light, stating this was also confidential.

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