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August 10, 2004
You are on the invidual archive page of Our learned friends. Click Simon World weblog for the main page.
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Our learned friends
Sometimes members of the Bar can have difficulty distinguishing between their capital and their lower case 'b's. Yesterday afternoon barrister Roderick Murray laughed and clapped his way through a 45 minute judgement reading by Justice Chua Fi-lan. He was 45 minutes late to the morning session, before returning after a long lunch (the count was a couple of beers and two dry martinis) to liven up proceedings. In mitigation Murray said he had a problem with his fiancee and had two martinis at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel before going to the court...He said outside court that he did not think his behaviour violated the norms of professional conduct nor did he think he would be disqualified because of it. The SCMP has more: Outside court, when a Post reporter tried to ask him about his behaviour, Mr Murray motioned towards the barrister's changing room. He then accused the reporter of trespassing on private premises and started swearing at the reporter, telling her to get out. "I am as drunk as a monkey. You f****** bitch, get out of here," Mr Murray yelled. He then chased the reporter out of the room...When asked why he had consumed the drinks and whether he was worried about possible disciplinary action, he replied: "You have to hear a lot of bull**** in court. I think I should be reported to the Bar Association. But nobody is going to strike me off." Mr Murray then struck poses for photographers, mimicking sculptor Rodin's The Thinker, before getting into a taxi. I'm as drunk as a monkey you f***ing bitch. Now that's a line to remember. Mr. Murray was prosecuting on behalf of the Department of Justice. As a taxpayer I insist Mr. Murray forgo his fees in this case. The Department of Justice must ban him from ever working for them again. Then I'd like to see the Hong Kong Bar rise to Mr. Murray's challenge and strike the fool off. But then they'd lose a drinking partner and a jolly good fellow, so it's not likely to happen. And people wonder why gweilos have such a bad reputation in this city. Who's a fucking monkey now, you little bitch? posted by Simon on 08.10.04 at 09:53 AM in the
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Comments:
I note that he "specialises in civil and criminal cases". posted by: fumier on 08.10.04 at 10:04 AM [permalink]I remember the first time I heard a solicitor refer to his opposition as his "friend" (only barristers are "learned friends"), I thought that the judge was going to strike him dead for the sarcastic reference. I was shocked to learn that it was an acceptable form of address. Generally, bad form to go to court drunk. It is usually ok afterwards, of course. posted by: RP on 08.10.04 at 10:32 AM [permalink]i don't think gweilos do actually have such a bad reputation in hk. i very rarely detect resentment here when dealing with all sorts of hong kongers. surely if our rep was so bad we'd detect negativity all the time. also, the fact that this story makes it into the press goes to show it is a break from the norm and it obviously surprised at least one news editor. not to mention the jounalist bitch. poor form for abusing her i guess, but don't journalist's need to be told to back the f*ck off from time to time? posted by: aaron on 08.10.04 at 11:30 AM [permalink] |
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