We get a lot of tips from our readers here at Jezebel, and sometimes, in all the whirl and hubbub, things fall through the cracks. It’s regrettable, it’s a little embarrassing, and it means it’s taken us a full day to write about this British judge who called a Nazi a cunt in court.
Judge Patricia Lynch QC of Chelmsford faced off in court Wednesday with an avowed neo-Nazi named John Hennigan, who was being sentenced for shouting racist abuse at a black woman and her two children. Hennigan, who hails from Essex, presumably a toilet therein, has a long history of being an absolute and hateful dipshit. Per the Guardian, he has “dozens” of previous convictions for drugs, firearm possession, assault, daubing a swastika on the front door of his council house, and, in 2010, verbally abusing a newsagent “before attacking him with a display of sweets.”
This time, his ire was directed at Judge Lynch. “You’re a bit of a cunt,” he told her.
“You’re a bit of a cunt yourself,” she replied, per the Essex Chronicle. “Being offensive to me doesn’t help.”
“Go fuck yourself,” Hennigan shouted back.
“You too,” Lynch replied.
The Guardian reports Hennigan also shouted “Sieg Heil” and banged the glass panel of the dock as he was sentenced to 18 months in jail.
Now that we’ve solved the mystery of who is a British-usage-of-the-word cunt (it’s John Hennigan), we must turn our attention to why we didn’t run this tip yesterday, when someone emailed us a link to the Essex Chronicle story along with the words, “I think I love her.”
Nor did we fully realize the import of what was going on today, when someone else emailed us again, rightly scolding us for negligence. In our work chatroom, a fertile place for many different kinds of stupidity, it actually took us a minute to figure out what the email was saying, because it was in British.
Eventually we worked it out, and saw this photo of Lynch. We have yet to fully recover.
It’s good to recognize your weaknesses and errors, so that you can eventually learn and grow from them.
Judge Lynch is fully deserving of our and your love, in that “acerbic wit and put-downs” are regularly a part of her rulings. Here she is, via the Chronicle, sentencing a football (soccer) player for domestic violence. It is, as the kids, say, a read:
“Your behaviour that evening was appalling. You had an argument because you failed to take your partner to a hospital appointment. There was an acrimonious text exchange.
You had been at the pub knocking back booze with your football mates and you arrived home expecting trouble and you behaved appallingly.
“You are a man with a history that indicates when you are in drink you behave violently.
“Over and above behaving violently, you use violence against partners and in this case, over and above violence against partners, you had absolutely no qualms about leaving the house and going back to where your tiny child was.
“What does that make you?
“A disgrace. You need to learn that no man should ever raise his hand to a woman. No man should ever put the most precious thing in his life, his child, in fear.
“When police arrived, they were cowering in the bathroom. You have to learn that you can’t behave like that. You know full well you shouldn’t drink because you become obnoxious and violent.”
But in an absurd and unjust turn of events, she’s now being investigated by the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office for “swearing in court.” The JCIO told the BBC it had received “complaints.” Probably from a bunch of cunts.