SUPPORT FOR MR JUSTICE SEVUA

I have had a long association with Mr Justice Sevua who was the presiding judge in my Court action for custody of two daughters in 2001.

A more bad tempered judge I have never met. On two occasions, he threatened me with contempt of Court. Yet all I was doing was representing myself.

But I always thought that he was an honest judge. Over recent years, I have felt sad at the helplessness of Judge Sevua in seeking to continue his contract that had been cancelled. He was like a fly in a bottle.

It had to have been known by the CJ of that time that Sevua’s contract took him past his retirement date. But this was surely not an unusual practice.

There was something very amiss in the whole proceedings. The poor man was forced to seek justice before his own previous colleagues. There may have been a conflict of interest that was ignored.

And his appeal was rejected. There was something personal in all this. Perhaps they did not like him.

Perhaps the independent judiciary was being too independent and become a club of mates. Were the judges in the appeal obeying a directive from the Chief Justice?

Was Judge Sevua in the bad books of the Chief Justice in granting probate to the will of the late Judge Timothy Hinchliffe? Tim and his adopted son were gay.

Let us hope that this was not an issue in the present dispute. A will is a will. It would have been a quite straight forward matter for Mr Justice Sevua. The plot thickens.

I always felt that the presiding judges were being unfair and callous to another judge who may have been humane in his dealings. Timothy Hinchliffe was a good judge and a friend.