LONDON: Tory peer Lord Freud has apologised in the House of Lords after being found to have breached the Code of Conduct by seeking to interfere in a legal decision.
Lord Freud – along with five MPs – wrote to senior members of the judiciary raising concerns that a more junior judge was considering publishing character references provided for ex-MP Charlie Elphicke, who was convicted of sex offences.
Lords commissioner for standards Lucy Scott-Moncrieff found there was “an inherent dishonour in Lord Freud choosing to leverage his position as a parliamentarian to seek to influence the trial judge by writing in private to two other senior judges, and in acting carelessly by failing even to consider the constitutional propriety of him doing so”.
Making a personal statement at the start of the day’s proceedings in the Lords, the former minister said: “Today the commissioner for standards has published a report into my conduct.
“The report relates to letters to which I was a signatory, to members of the judiciary about references provided to the court to inform sentencing of Mr Elphicke. “My motive was purely to alert the judiciary to what I considered an important issue of principle.
“However, I recognise it was not my place to do so and should not have added my name to the latter. I apologise to the House and the judiciary.”
The parliamentarians wrote to Lady Justice Thirlwall, the senior presiding judge, and Dame Victoria Sharp, president of the Queen’s Bench Division, asking them to consider issues raised by the potential release of character references provided for Elphicke.
The letter, on headed House of Commons notepaper, was also copied to Mrs Justice Whipple, who had heard Elphicke’s case and was deciding whether to release the character references.
MPs Sir Roger Gale, Adam Holloway, Colonel Bob Stewart and ex-environment secretary Theresa Villiers, along with Lord Freud, subsequently self-published their own references following the media application.
Natalie Elphicke, Elphicke’s estranged wife and his successor as Dover MP, who did not give evidence during the trial, joined the quintet in adding her name to the letter to senior judges.
The politicians said the senior judges should “consider the crucially important matters of principle which are at stake in this case, prior to any disclosure of names of any member of the public or of the references they have provided in court”. The letter closed by noting a role for Parliament on this issue: “So serious a matter with such significant repercussions also should be considered further and fully by Parliament.”
The letter, sent on November 19, earned them a rebuke from Ben Yallop, private secretary to the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, who said “it is improper to seek to influence the decision of a judge in a matter of which he or she is seized in this way”.
In December 2020, Mrs Justice Whipple agreed to a representation by the media to release the identities of the character references.