(U.K. Justice) Don't be nasty to criminals! Knife thug walks free because judge was 'rude, harsh and sarcastic' - 8th Apr 2011

(Images) - Mr Justice Keith, left, quashed the conviction because Crown Court Judge Fergus Mitchell, right, went too far in reprimanding the defendant.

A thug has walked free from court after his conviction for knife possession was overturned because the trial judge was ‘rude’ to him.

Koenya Tedjame-Mortty, 32, had been found guilty by a jury after being caught by police driving around London armed with knives.

But in a decision that has caused outrage, judges at the Court of Appeal quashed the conviction on the basis that the judge in his case was ‘rude, harsh and sarcastic’, leaving the villain too ‘unsettled’ to give ‘credible evidence’ in his own defence.

During his trial at Kingston Crown Court last year, Judge Fergus Mitchell reprimanded the career criminal for intimidating a boy doing work experience at the hearing.

The judge told him to ‘shut his mouth and listen’, asking him how dare he speak to the boy, who had complained of being accosted outside court and being stared at in an ‘unpleasant and threatening manner’.

The circuit judge, who summoned the defendant before him to investigate a possible contempt of court, also threatened to revoke his bail shortly before he was called to give evidence in his defence.

At the end of a short trial, the thug was found guilty of two counts of possession of a bladed article after the jury heard he had been driving the car with a kitchen knife and a craft knife in the back.

He was handed a seven-month suspended sentence and ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid community work on November 19. But Tedjame-Mortty immediately appealed, saying the exchange with the judge had left him feeling ‘anxious and shaken’. Read More