A man called a judge “dirty and scummy rat”, a “posh c***” and threatened to stab him and his children after becoming enraged during a court hearing. Benjamin Bishop has since offered an apology to Judge Jamie Sawyer at Chelmsford Crown Court after admitting contempt of court during a hearing on January 7 this year.
Bishop, 32, of Burgess Field, Chelmsford, claimed he had become distressed and is in a “very bad place” in his life following the vitriol he threw at Judge Sawyer. A sentencing hearing on Thursday (January 9) heard Bishop got angry after the judge did not want to consider a bail application in the previous hearing.
Bishop, who attended the hearing via a prison video link, then told the judge to “go f*** yourself then”. Following the initial outburst, Judge Sawyer then said bail was refused, to which Bishop exploded, saying “you dirty f***ing rat boy posh c***”.
Read more: New Essex school won’t open this year in significant setback that will leave kids in temporary classrooms
Read more: The Essex adventure centre with trampolines and soft play that will open for free for one day only
He continued in his vitriol saying the judge was a “scummy little rat job”, adding: “If I ever see you I will stab you”. It was also stated Bishop had threatened to stab the judge’s children, and that he would “stomp” on him, before he was muted.
When asked by Resident Judge Christopher Morgan if he accepted the contempt of court, Bishop, once again appearing on video link from HMP Chelmsford, said: “I do accept it and I would like to apologise. I am not sure what is going on with me at the moment, I am in a very, very bad place at the moment.
“I didn’t mean anything by it; I’ve been given a diagnosis of cancer. That’s being investigated, I am not getting any treatment in custody.” Bishop told the court that he lives with autism and that “every day is difficult” for him and his condition often leads to outbursts such as this one.
He told the judge he fears be may continue to go untreated in prison and that when previously admitting failing to appear in court he had been scared of what could happen and when he could see his children. On the day in question, Bishop claimed he thought it was a bail hearing and became frustrated when it was not dealt with on the day.
Judge Morgan said he was confident that Bishop’s actions were designed to simply be a “verbal threat”. However, he continued: “Nevertheless it’s a serious matter. It’s a serious matter to disrupt court proceedings, and even more serious to use plainly gratuitous and offensive language.
“There has to be a sentence for contempt where the judge is abused and threatened in this way that there is an element of deterrence. It’s ever more [common] that judges are threatened in this way.”
The judge gave Bishop three months in prison but suspended the order of committal for 18 months, meaning if Bishop does not commit any further contempt the custody sentence will not need to be served.