A magistrate spoke to colleagues listed to hear a relative’s case, according to a disciplinary statement published by the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office yesterday.
Stevan Marvin JP of the Nottinghamshire bench was issued with a formal warning for misconduct.
According to the JCIO statement, the Midlands Conduct Advisory Committee received a report that Marvin attended a court in which he sits in order to support a relative charged with a criminal offence. He entered a restricted part of the courthouse where he spoke to magistrates listed to hear his relative’s case. He also spoke to a magistrate outside court and tried to speak to a judge to whom the case was being transferred.
Marvin denied that he tried to influence the case ‘but accepted that he should not have spoken to the magistrates listed to hear it’, the statement said.
‘In deciding to issue Mr Marvin with a formal warning, Mr Justice Keehan and the lord chancellor agreed with the findings of an advisory committee conduct panel that Mr Marvin had failed to comply with his obligation to report his involvement in his relative’s case. And when at court, he acted in a way that risked undermining public confidence in judicial impartiality,’ the statement said.
‘However, they also took into consideration that Mr Marvin appeared to be genuinely sorry for his actions, had been suffering from ill health at the time, and had a lengthy record of good service.’
