A silk accused of misleading the jury and ignoring the judge’s directions during his closing speech has been summoned to a hearing at which the court will decide whether his conduct amounted to contempt of court.
Rajiv Menon KC, called in 1993, faces allegations of contempt of court over his closing speech in a trial at Woolwich Crown Court. Menon represented one of six activists accused of breaking into the Elbit Systems Factory, near Bristol, causing an estimated £1m of damage. None of the defendants was convicted. Following a retrial, a jury found four of the defendants, including Menon’s client Charlotte Head, guilty of criminal damage.
Woolwich Crown Court decided of its own motion to proceed against Menon and referred the matter to a divisional court. The Court of Appeal found there was no jurisdiction for the Administrative Court to initiate contempt proceedings of its own motion and referred the case back to the Crown court. Last week, Mr Justice Johnson found Menon should face summary proceedings for contempt.
In a summons published today and circulated to the press, Mr Justice Nicklin orders Menon to attend the Royal Courts of Justice on 28 July for a hearing before Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, sitting as judge of the Crown court at Woolwich.
The summons states that evidence ‘raises a prima facie case that the respondent may have acted in contempt of court and that it is in the public interest for contempt proceedings to be instituted by the court’.
Menon will be entitled to give evidence at the hearing, which has been listed with an initial time estimate of two days.
