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Christopher Hehir

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British judge born November 1966

Christopher Hehir
BornChristopher Joseph Hehir
(1966-11-15) 15 November 1966 (age 58)
Alma materMerton College, Oxford
OccupationJudge
Known forJust Stop Oil M25 blockade case
Just Stop Oil Sunflowers protest

Christopher Joseph Hehir (born 15 November 1966) is a British judge. Called to the bar in 1990, he later sat as a judge at Southwark Crown Court and a London Nightingale Court. In July 2024, he convicted Roger Hallam to five years in prison and four other protesters to four years each for their parts in the Just Stop Oil M25 blockade case, prompting criticism from over 1,200 artists, athletes, and academics. He then sentenced Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland to 24 and 20 months over their parts in the Just Stop Oil Sunflowers protest in spite of an open letter imploring him otherwise, prompting various writers to compare their crimes to those committed by those he had previously given suspended sentences to.

Life and career

Christopher Joseph Hehir was born on 15 November 1966 and was educated at St Aloysius' College, Glasgow, Charters School, and Merton College, Oxford. He was called to the bar at Inner Temple in 1990 and sat at King's Bench Walk Chambers. He spent a period serving as a judge at Southwark Crown Court and then at Nightingale Court, a temporary court set up to clear a backlog of cases caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. In October 2014, he represented the Crown Prosecution Service against Moazzam Begg, though the prosecution offered no evidence at trial after discovering new evidence shortly beforehand.

In 2014, as a recorder, he gave a suspended sentence to two brothers who had assaulted two police officers and a bystander. In February 2019, he upheld Alison Chabloz's conviction for broadcasting "grossly offensive" anti-Semitic songs. That September, he sentenced Michael De Souza, the creator of Rastamouse, to community service for benefit fraud, having consulted with his daughter beforehand. Four years afterward, he gave a suspended sentence to a man who had driven into the Downing Street security gates and been caught with extreme child abuse images on his phone, having allowed him to cite autism, ADHD, and diabetes as arguments. The January after that, he handed a suspended sentence to a serving police officer who had slept with a drunk woman in a patrol car; this was increased to a prison sentence upon review.

In July 2024, Hehir sentenced Roger Hallam to five years in prison and four other protesters to four years each under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 for conspiring to cause a public nuisance by organising direct action protests to block the M25 motorway. His sentences, which drew audible gasps from the gallery, were criticised by the United Nations officials Michel Forst and Volker Türk and by the scientist Bill McGuire. In addition, over 1,200 artists, athletes, and academics including the former Archbishop Rowan Williams, the musicians Chris Martin, Annie Lennox, and the author Philip Pullman signed a letter to the Attorney General for England and Wales condemning the sentences. The sentences were however supported by the legal professor Andrew Tettenborn.

Later that month, Hehir convicted Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland of criminal damage for throwing soup at a painting of Sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh. Just before sentencing, more than a hundred artists, curators and academics signed an open letter coordinated by Greenpeace and Liberate Tate imploring Hehir not to sentence Plummer and Holland to prison. In spite of this and a nearby vigil, Hehir sentenced Plummer to two years for their tomato soup protest and Holland to 20 months. In response to the sentence, activists from Last Generation threw soup at the Embassy of the United Kingdom, Berlin and similar protests took place outside the embassies of Amsterdam, Paris, and Rome.

His sentences were criticised by George Monbiot, who compared the protesters' actions with those who had earned suspended sentences by Hehir and described him as "the Judge Jeffreys of our time", and by Sarah Manavis of New Statesman, who found allowing autism, ADHD, and diabetes as arguments but not climate change hypocritical. His sentences were also criticised by Alan Rusbridger, who also noted that Hehir manned a private Twitter account that used as its profile picture an image of the corrupt and incompetent lawyer Lionel Hutz from The Simpsons, and Nadya Tolokonnikova, though Celia Walden was less sympathetic. In December 2024, he gave a suspended sentence to Phil Shiner after he admitted defrauding the Legal Aid Agency to file false claims against British soldiers who fought in Iraq, citing his age and declining health; his sentence was criticised by the politicians Johnny Mercer and Ben Wallace.

References

  1. "Hehir, Christopher Joseph, (born 15 Nov. 1966), a Circuit Judge, since 2015". WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO. 2016. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U285076. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
  2. "Christopher Hehir, Greater London Barrister". www.thelawpages.com. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
  3. Evans, Martin (3 August 2020). "'Nightingale Court' gets off to shaky start with delays and missing documents". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
  4. Norton-Taylor, Richard (7 October 2014). "The strange case of Moazzam Begg". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 11 December 2024.
  5. ^ "Locking up climate protesters for throwing soup is the mark of broken justice system". The Independent. 4 October 2024. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
  6. "Alison Chabloz has anti-Semitic songs conviction upheld". BBC News. 13 February 2019. Retrieved 8 October 2024.
  7. Ames, Jonathan (10 September 2019). "Judge's daughter saves Rastamouse creator Michael de Souza from jail". www.thetimes.com. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
  8. ^ Monbiot, George (1 October 2024). "As the waters rise, a two-year sentence for throwing soup. That's the farcical reality of British justice". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
  9. ^ Manavis, Sarah (1 October 2024). "Did the Just Stop Oil soup-throwers deserve their sentence?". New Statesman. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
  10. "Officer who had sex with drunk woman in patrol car after offering lift avoids jail". The Independent. 15 January 2024. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
  11. Gayle, Damien; Horton, Helena; Quinn, Ben (19 July 2024). "'Not acceptable in a democracy': UN expert condemns lengthy Just Stop Oil sentences". The Guardian.
  12. Spray, Stuart (18 July 2024). "Just Stop Oil Protestors Receive Harshest Jail Terms Yet in Case that 'May Violate Human Rights Law'". Byline Times. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
  13. "UK climate activists jailed for at least four years over road blocks". www.ft.com. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
  14. Speare-Cole, Rebecca (23 July 2024). "Hundreds of celebrities condemn 'injustice' of Just Stop Oil sentences". The Independent.
  15. Gayle, Damien; Horton, Helena (19 July 2024). "Celebrities add voice to outcry over severity of Just Stop Oil sentences". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 July 2024.
  16. Bell, Bethan (23 July 2024). "Just Stop Oil sentences condemned by celebrities". BBC News.
  17. Tettenborn, Andrew (19 July 2024). "Just Stop Oil fanatics deserve their lengthy jail terms". The Spectator. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
  18. "Just Stop Oil pair guilty of throwing soup on to Van Gogh artwork". BBC News. 25 July 2024. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
  19. ^ "The climate protesters who threw soup at a van Gogh painting. (And why they won't stop.)". POLITICO. 2 October 2024. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
  20. Gayle, Damien (26 September 2024). "Artists plead for activists who threw soup on a Van Gogh to be spared jail". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
  21. Gayle, Damien (27 September 2024). "Just Stop Oil activists throw soup at Van Gogh's Sunflowers after fellow protesters jailed". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
  22. ^ Walden, Celia (30 September 2024). "Soup-throwing protests only happen because we indulge Just Stop Oil's moral toddlers". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  23. Monbiot, George (1 October 2024). "As the waters rise, a two-year sentence for throwing soup. That's the farcical reality of British justice". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
  24. Tolokonnikova, Nadya (3 October 2024). "Van Gogh is turning in his grave at the harsh Just Stop Oil sentence. I know, because I spoke to him". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  25. Ames, Jonathan (10 December 2024). "Phil Shiner sentenced for fraud over bogus Iraq war claims against army". www.thetimes.com. Retrieved 12 December 2024.
  26. Ames, Jonathan (12 December 2024). "Why judge ruled that Phil Shiner should not be jailed for Iraq war fraud". www.thetimes.com. Retrieved 12 December 2024.
  27. Bird, Steve; Mendick, Robert (10 December 2024). "Disgraced lawyer Phil Shiner avoids jail after pursuing British soldiers over fake war crimes". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 12 December 2024.
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