Judge who offered to pay girl's court fine after she stabbed her paedophile abuser guilty of misconduct

Judge who offered to pay girl's court fine after she stabbed her paedophile abuser guilty of misconduct

The girl carried out the stabbing on her abuser's doorstep - six years after he was spared jail for sexually assaulting her when she was eight

Jonathan Durham Hall QC

A judge who offered to pay a court fine for a teenage girl who stabbed her paedophile abuser has been disciplined.

Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC made the extraordinary offer after hearing the case of a girl who stabbed a man aged 15.

She had turned up on the victim's doorstep and knifed him close to the heart, six years after he walked free from court despite assaulting her as a young child.

The girl was charged with attempted murder but prosecutors eventually accepted a charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

Judge Hall sentenced the girl to a rehabilitation order and told her not to pay the mandatory victim surcharge adding: "If anyone tries to force you, I will pay it myself."

He was investigated by the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office for his comments and his comments were found to amount to misconduct.

He was given "formal advice", the lowest sanction possible, the Times reports.

The teenager , who was just eight years old when she was sexually assaulted by the man.

When turned up at his home, she told the 56-year-old: "I'm going to kill you," before knifing him through his chest wall, cutting through an artery supplying blood away from his heart.

Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC refused to impose a mandatory victim surcharge, telling the teenager: "It would be a disgrace to send a survivor like you to prison."

Bradford Crown Court heard how the girl was 14 years old when she armed herself with a large kitchen knife and stabbed her tormentor.

The girl handed herself into police straight after the stabbing, Bradford Crown court heard

The man had been found guilty by jurors in 2009 of sexually abusing the girl when she was a child.

But despite his conviction, he was handed a community order with a supervision requirement instead of a prison sentence.

The court heard how the girl felt let down by the legal system when the man harassed and bullied her after walking free from court.

She went round to her abuser's home and plunged the knife into his chest in front of members of his family.

The man was saved by the swift intervention of paramedics and surgeons. He was in intensive care and needed a blood transfusion.

After stabbing her abuser, the girl hugged her aunt, said: "Tell my mum I love her," and
handed herself into a police station in Bradford city centre.

She said: "I've killed someone," and immediately confessed to what she had done, describing the man as a 'paedophile'.

Her defence lawyer said said the girl had been 'entirely destroyed' when her abuser was not jailed for sexually assaulting her and inciting her to engage in sexual activity.