Man gets two years for calling judge 'a fat crank' (From Warrington Guardian)

Man gets two years for calling judge 'a fat crank'

AN Orford man who hurled abuse at a judge at Liverpool Crown Court was jailed for two years last Thursday.

Paul Butler, aged 45, had been brought to court so that a date could be re-arranged for his trial, which should have begun last Wednesday.

The trial had been adjourned because he was not produced from prison due to an oversight.

When he appeared in court on Thursday in handcuffs, he refused to sit down and when the charges he faces - dangerous driving - were put to him, he refused to recognise the court's authority.

Butler said that he did not know what the clerk was 'on about' and said that it was a county court. "I don't recognise your ****ing court," he said.

The judge, Recorder Anthony Russell, QC, warned Butler about his behaviour but he still refused to calm down and the judge warned him that if he did not behave appropriately he would jail him for two years.

"Come on, then, give it to me," retorted Butler.

Butler, of Grasmere Avenue, then hurled abuse at the judge, describing him as 'a fat crank' and was taken down to the cells to begin his sentence for contempt of court.

Afterwards, Recorder Russell told the dock officer to tell Butler, who was not legally represented, that if he wished to apologise he would re-consider the sentence but was later told that Butler refused to do so.

In his absence his new trial date on the charge of driving a Nissan Micra dangerously in Whitwell Close, Standish, dangerously on December 18, 2003, was fixed to begin on October 18.