A judge has been sacked for using a pseudonym to post abusive comments on a newspaper website about cases he was involved in.
Recorder Jason Dunn-Shaw, of Maidstone Chambers in Kent, is understood to have called one man a “donkey” and others “narrow-minded and bigoted”.
He also accused others of commenting “without thinking things through”.
Mr Dunn-Shaw told KentOnline – the site where the comments were posted – he was “dismayed” he had been sacked.
Dunn-Shaw was commenting on news stories relating to a case for which he was sitting as a judge at Canterbury Crown Court, and another for which he was a barrister.
The Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO) said his behaviour was “below standard”.
The judge told the BBC he would be appealing to the Ombudsman “to complain about the procedure, which to my mind was flawed and unfair”.
In quotes to KentOnline, he said the JCOI accepted his comments were made under a pseudonym.
‘Lack of impartiality’
He added: “Their other condemnation is of comments I made on the pages of Facebook friends which I believed to have been private.
“It seems to me unfair that the tracking of anonymous material places me where I am now.”
Mr Dunn-Shaw – who has experience in both prosecution and defence – has worked on more than 45 murder trials during his career, as well as death by dangerous driving, drugs smuggling, sexual offences and fraud.
A spokesman for the JCIO said: “In his own name he used publicly available social media sites to post material or not remove material which was not compatible with the dignity of judicial office or suggested a lack of impartiality on matters of public controversy.
“The Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice concluded that this behaviour fell below the standard expected of a judicial office holder and have removed Mr Dunn-Shaw from judicial office.”