An experienced magistrate has been issued with a misconduct warning after he swore in court and told a witness “I am sick of seeing you, get out”.
Jonathan Dannatt said “this is shit” after the bench had delivered its verdict in a case, the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO) found.
The witness was left feeling “shocked and embarrassed” by the incident, the investigation was told.
Mr Dannatt, JP of the Staffordshire Bench, who had a previously unblemished record of 17 years as a magistrate, including 14 as a presiding justice, said his outburst arose from his concerns about the impact of the sentence on the defendant and his family, and the reaction of the witness to this result.
He accepted saying “this is shit” and asking the witness to leave in a manner that may have appeared abrupt, but told the investigation he did not remember telling the witness “I am sick of seeing you, get out of here”.
Mr Dannatt said he was “horrified that he had behaved in this way”, and was “profoundly sorry and would ensure it never happened again”.
The JCIO ruled that Mr Dannatt did say “this is shit” and told the witness to “get out”, which amounted to serious misconduct.
“Mr Dannatt’s language and behaviour significantly breached the expected standards of conduct,” the disciplinary statement said.
“The risk of reputational damage to the magistracy was significant and the witness experienced emotional distress.”
A spokesman for the JCIO said: “Mr Justice Keehan, on behalf of the Lady Chief Justice and with the Lord Chancellor’s agreement, has issued Mr Jonathan Dannatt JP of the Staffordshire Bench with a formal warning for misconduct.”
