By Daily Mail Reporter 14th December 2010
- Beatrice Bolton yells 'I'll never set foot in a court again'
- She is told off for chewing gum during trial
A judge unleashed a foul-mouthed attack on the British justice system
yesterday as she was found guilty of owning a dangerous dog and fined £2,500.
Beatrice Bolton, 57, stormed out of the court as the verdict was delivered screaming: ‘I’m going. It’s a ****ing travesty.’
Outside, the £140,000-a-year judge could be heard shouting and wailing.
Bolton outside Carlisle Magistrate's Court. She was convicted of failing to control her German Shepherd, called Georgina, who charged at Frederick Becker, 20 (right), and bit into his leg while he sunbathed in his parents' garden
Later as the court adjourned for lunch Judge Bolton – who had gone back into the building – emerged from a side room but was clearly still fuming.
She yelled: ‘Do you want a statement? I’ll give you a statement. I have no faith in the justice system whatsoever.
‘I will never sit in a court of law again. How can he (the magistrate) say that? How can he bloody say that?’
The judge, who sits at Newcastle Crown Court, was then ushered back into the side room by her solicitor and family in a desperate attempt to calm her.
She later returned to court and was ordered to apologise for swearing. She muttered: ‘I apologise.’
Judge Bolton was brought before Carlisle magistrates’ court after her German Shepherd, Georgie, attacked a neighbour’s sunbathing son on May 31.
The three-year-old dog charged at Frederick Becker, 20, as he lay on the lawn in the garden shared by his family and Judge Bolton. It bit him on the leg, piercing his trousers and leaving a slight wound.
Mr Becker, a politics student, told the court he leapt to his feet when he saw the dog. If he had not, it could have bitten him on the face, he said.
The court heard that Judge Bolton and Mr Becker’s parents, stepfather John Malia and mother Anne, were friends for many years but their relationship deteriorated and there were ‘numerous’ police visits because of incidents involving the dog.
The Malias said they were ‘scared’ of the dog and had repeatedly asked the judge to keep it off their part of the garden, which is overlooked by their adjoining homes in Rothbury, Northumberland.
They described Judge Bolton as ‘the neighbour from hell’
Neighbour from Hell: Judge Beatrice Bolton, 57, stormed out of court after being convicted. She was also ordered to pay £275 to her dog’s victim, £930 prosecution costs and a £15 victim surcharge
Judge Bolton was originally charged with failing to keep her dog under control but this was reduced to allowing her dog to enter a private place where there were grounds for ‘reasonable apprehension’ that it would injure someone.
She was ordered to pay a £2,500 fine. The maximum penalty was six months in prison and a £5,000 fine.
She was also ordered to pay £275 to her dog’s victim, £930 prosecution costs and a £15 victim surcharge.
The magistrates made no order in relation to the dog.
In a further court outburst Judge Bolton, who at one stage was told to remove chewing gum by the court clerk, told her barrister that she could not pay.
‘I haven’t got money, any money at all,’ she said. ‘I’m in debt. My outgoings are exceeding my incomings.’
Magistrates agreed to allow her to pay half within the next six months and the rest six months later.
After the hearing Judge Bolton, who is expected to appeal, said: ‘I have been under considerable stress and anxiety. I have suffered panic attacks for several months and anything I did say I’m afraid was as a result of the specific position emotionally that I now find myself in.’
Last night a spokesman for the Judicial Communications Office said the judge’s behaviour in and outside court would be referred to the Office for Judicial Complaints.
He added: ‘It will be for the Lord Chief Justice and the Lord Chancellor to
consider the impact of this conviction on her position as a judge.’
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