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TARGET
23/1/87
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BYE, BYE, BARKER?
Time to step down, Mr Justice Barker?
Even the Chief Justice and 2 of your peers are not too happy about your recent perfor-
mance.
And they only concerned themselves with your decisions in respect to the Carrian trial, not your conduct before, during and after it.
Even the Chief Justice and the other 2 Appeal Court Judges who, as with most of the Judiciary, do not like criticism, have not hesitated to condemn your findings in the Carrian case.
The Chief Justice, Sir Denys Roberts, Attorney General's Reference last week, aspects of the case.
who headed the Court of Appeal which heard the went so far as to suggest that you had confused
The Chief Justice continued saying that your verdict was wrong,
and that the matter of
duplicity was wholly unexpected a legal slap in the face, Mr Justice Barker?
The Court of Appeal did not address your behaviour during the trial.
In a recent case in the US, where a man was found guilty of a mass murder and sentenced to death, on appeal this sentence was quashed just because there was a problem with the
selection of one of the members of the jury.
There is little doubt that if this trial judge had been fraternising with the prosecuting counsel at parties the counsel had thrown, or had known any of the witnesses for the prosecution, the man would be free and on the streets right now.
The Carrian Case was not a matter of life or death and, since the defendants were acquit- ted, it was not a matter of taking away a person's freedom.
But it could have been.
Sitting on the bench, you are given almost a sacred role of judging your fellow human beings.
This is a tremendous responsibility.
Yet you drink too much.
Would one knowlingly ride in a car with a drunk doing the driving?
If George Tan had been on trial for murder, would you still have got pissed every lunch time at The Hongkong Club?
You are also part of the Judiciary, one of the faces of authority in Hongkong.
TARGET has been criticised for reporting about judges whose behaviour is unsuitable given the position they hold.
Yet TARGET is not trying to bring down the Judiciary, nor even to put ridicule upon it
a number of members of the Judiciary manage to do this all by themselves.
TARGET only reports the news:
Although TARGET is sorry for you, Mr Justice Barker, TARGET
is not sorry for what you did, nor what was printed about it.