Sussex magistrate sacked after admitting knowing dope smokers (From The Argus)
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Sussex magistrate sacked after admitting knowing dope smokers
10:30am Tuesday 21st August 2012 in News By Anna Roberts, Crime reporter
BANNED: Former magistrate Sarah McDonagh
A magistrate says she has been removed from the bench after telling her bosses people she knew smoked cannabis.
Sarah McDonagh, who sat on the West Sussex bench covering Worthing and Chichester, last week learnt that she was permanently sacked as a magistrate.
She said she told colleagues some people close to her had dabbled in cannabis and claimed this led to her being told to leave the magistracy.
However, the Office for Judicial Complaints said Mrs McDonagh was unable to demonstrate some of the key qualities required of a magistrate and recommended that she be removed from the magistracy.
Mrs McDonagh, of Yapton, near Arundel, said she informed the bench she knew people who had used cannabis and problems had occurred since then.
She said the people involved who smoked the class B drug had not been convicted of any offence and she herself had never taken any illegal substances.
The 65-year-old said: “I thought I was doing the right thing. They said I was not allowed to sit while that situation was going on.”
Mrs McDonagh said she informed colleagues she had cut contact with the people involved but was still banned.
A spokesperson for the Office for Judicial Complaints said: “Mrs McDonagh, a magistrate appointed in May 2006 to the West Sussex Bench, has been removed from the magistracy following a Review Body hearing convened to consider her suitability to hold judicial office.
“The Review Body found Mrs McDonagh was unable to demonstrate some of the key qualities required of a magistrate and recommended she be removed from the magistracy.
“The Lord Chief Justice and the Lord Chancellor accepted the recommendation of the Review Body and have removed Mrs McDonagh from the magistracy.”
In 2009, the Office for Judicial Complaints said she “demonstrated a lack of judgement in her personal dealings with the police and her local bench”.
Comments(25)
Crystal Ball
says...
11:05am Tue 21 Aug 12
Pitviper
says...
11:11am Tue 21 Aug 12
inadaptado
says...
11:13am Tue 21 Aug 12
Made In Sussex
says...
11:18am Tue 21 Aug 12
JayelleFarmer
says...
11:21am Tue 21 Aug 12
Enough! Appeal!!!
rolivan
says...
11:30am Tue 21 Aug 12
So it has taken them 3years to make a decision.How many of those people that made the decision Smoke when they know it will kill them.Surely that shows a lack of Judgement in itself.
Skidrow
says...
11:59am Tue 21 Aug 12
"Oh yes all my friends smoke dope"
Perhaps one of the key qualities she didn't display was the ability to keep her mouth shut at the right time, i.e. around fellow magistrates and pc plod!
MuammarQaddafi
says...
1:06pm Tue 21 Aug 12
... i.e., hypocrisy. If she had said she knew people who drank alcohol, what would have happened? Nothing. Yet drunkenness causes far more anti-social, violent, and fatal results than smoking grass.
cookie_brighton
says...
2:08pm Tue 21 Aug 12
cookie_brighton
says...
2:11pm Tue 21 Aug 12
getThisCoalitionOut
says...
3:10pm Tue 21 Aug 12
NickA18 wrote:So everyone "spokes Cannabis" do they?
Society needs to realise the truth about Cannabis.
It's not just youths, drug addicts or rebels, everyone spokes Cannabis. From your Bankers, Lawyers, Directors, CEO's to the bloke who works in the off license down the road. That is the reason It is so popular.
People need to realise the real world and not just the typical old fashioned view of "It starts with Cannabis but next It's Heroin."
You may or may not be aware of one the biggest risks with cannabis is that it causes mental illness. I don't think that's a risk worth taking - obviously you do but do not be so foolish as to recommend something that is so dangerous.
So many people committ suicide after taking this or become aggressive - to the point of murdering - so do you still think everyone should take it? I don't.
jihugyftdre
says...
5:03pm Tue 21 Aug 12
We used to go raving too, but as we have gotten older all that dancing is too much. We still enjoy some decent mandy and charley though (and judges are in positions to meet dealers of decent stuff, not just sellers of glucose and benzocaine).
boblat
says...
6:56pm Tue 21 Aug 12
getThisCoalitionOut wrote:Wottatotallottabollo
NickA18 wrote:So everyone "spokes Cannabis" do they?
Society needs to realise the truth about Cannabis.
It's not just youths, drug addicts or rebels, everyone spokes Cannabis. From your Bankers, Lawyers, Directors, CEO's to the bloke who works in the off license down the road. That is the reason It is so popular.
People need to realise the real world and not just the typical old fashioned view of "It starts with Cannabis but next It's Heroin."
You may or may not be aware of one the biggest risks with cannabis is that it causes mental illness. I don't think that's a risk worth taking - obviously you do but do not be so foolish as to recommend something that is so dangerous.
So many people committ suicide after taking this or become aggressive - to the point of murdering - so do you still think everyone should take it? I don't.
x!!
I been smoking cannabis for 50 years and I ain't committed suicide or murdered anyone....In my opinion it should have been legalised years ago, so we could all benefit from the Hemp.
And where does aggression come from?
The poisonous LEGAL Alcohol !!!!
PorkBoat
says...
8:13pm Tue 21 Aug 12
Getaroundin
says...
8:32pm Tue 21 Aug 12
boblat wrote:I think from having read a number of your posts that the side effects are obvious, even if you can't readily see them.
getThisCoalitionOut wrote:Wottatotallottabollo
NickA18 wrote:So everyone "spokes Cannabis" do they?
Society needs to realise the truth about Cannabis.
It's not just youths, drug addicts or rebels, everyone spokes Cannabis. From your Bankers, Lawyers, Directors, CEO's to the bloke who works in the off license down the road. That is the reason It is so popular.
People need to realise the real world and not just the typical old fashioned view of "It starts with Cannabis but next It's Heroin."
You may or may not be aware of one the biggest risks with cannabis is that it causes mental illness. I don't think that's a risk worth taking - obviously you do but do not be so foolish as to recommend something that is so dangerous.
So many people committ suicide after taking this or become aggressive - to the point of murdering - so do you still think everyone should take it? I don't.
x!!
I been smoking cannabis for 50 years and I ain't committed suicide or murdered anyone....In my opinion it should have been legalised years ago, so we could all benefit from the Hemp.
And where does aggression come from?
The poisonous LEGAL Alcohol !!!!
Getaroundin
says...
8:38pm Tue 21 Aug 12
boblat wrote:Its probably paranoia that makes you believe that people are laughing at your comments. He he he
getThisCoalitionOut wrote:Wottatotallottabollo
NickA18 wrote:So everyone "spokes Cannabis" do they?
Society needs to realise the truth about Cannabis.
It's not just youths, drug addicts or rebels, everyone spokes Cannabis. From your Bankers, Lawyers, Directors, CEO's to the bloke who works in the off license down the road. That is the reason It is so popular.
People need to realise the real world and not just the typical old fashioned view of "It starts with Cannabis but next It's Heroin."
You may or may not be aware of one the biggest risks with cannabis is that it causes mental illness. I don't think that's a risk worth taking - obviously you do but do not be so foolish as to recommend something that is so dangerous.
So many people committ suicide after taking this or become aggressive - to the point of murdering - so do you still think everyone should take it? I don't.
x!!
I been smoking cannabis for 50 years and I ain't committed suicide or murdered anyone....In my opinion it should have been legalised years ago, so we could all benefit from the Hemp.
And where does aggression come from?
The poisonous LEGAL Alcohol !!!!
boblat
says...
10:02pm Tue 21 Aug 12
Maybe if you had any sort of a brain in your thick heads you would see that most of the time I'm taking the p**s out of you ''New waver''peasants....N
ow you speechless plebs should go back to where you crawled out from and do one!!!!....ASAP!!
Getaroundin
says...
10:21pm Tue 21 Aug 12
boblat wrote:Well, to be clear there has been no personal attack on you, although that can't be said for your post, which is clearly a personal attack on others.
I feel really sorry for you small minded little commenter's that can only issue a PERSONAL attack on me because you have NO answer to my very basic and cogent comments.
Maybe if you had any sort of a brain in your thick heads you would see that most of the time I'm taking the p**s out of you ''New waver''peasants....N
ow you speechless plebs should go back to where you crawled out from and do one!!!!....ASAP!!
Maxwell's Ghost
says...
12:01am Wed 22 Aug 12
The NHS should prescribe these drugs and ensure the right people get the right drug.
Pot smokers never get much done and they always smell of old ladies bungalows.
Jimmy Stewart's Imaginary Rabbit
says...
2:12pm Wed 22 Aug 12
Pitviper wrote:I sincerely hope that's true. It would be terrible if magistrates were drawn from such a small strata of society that anybody who simply knows a dope-smoker is deemed to be 'not suitable'.
Plain fact here is that she was removed from the bench as she didn't meet the required standards. All magistrates are assessed periodically for exactly this purpose. This lady is just whinging because she believes differently.
Jimmy Stewart's Imaginary Rabbit
says...
2:21pm Wed 22 Aug 12
cookie_brighton wrote:No it doesn't. It says she was 'unable to demonstrate some of the key qualities required of a magistrate'. That's just a vague bit of waffle to try and justify their "no one who knows a dope smoker should be a magistrate' position. Unless you, like Pitviper, know some other facts about this lady that don't appear in the story?
read the story again.....they dismissed her for other reasons.
Jimmy Stewart's Imaginary Rabbit
says...
9:21am Thu 23 Aug 12
Cyril Bolleaux
says...
10:11am Thu 23 Aug 12
boblat wrote:You need to watch that aggression, have you been drinking?
I feel really sorry for you small minded little commenter's that can only issue a PERSONAL attack on me because you have NO answer to my very basic and cogent comments. Maybe if you had any sort of a brain in your thick heads you would see that most of the time I'm taking the p**s out of you ''New waver''peasants....N ow you speechless plebs should go back to where you crawled out from and do one!!!!....ASAP!!
John Steed
says...
5:16pm Thu 23 Aug 12
NickA18 says...
10:54am Tue 21 Aug 12
It's not just youths, drug addicts or rebels, everyone spokes Cannabis. From your Bankers, Lawyers, Directors, CEO's to the bloke who works in the off license down the road. That is the reason It is so popular.
People need to realise the real world and not just the typical old fashioned view of "It starts with Cannabis but next It's Heroin."