A judge who agreed that the schoolgirl Sara Sharif could live with her father and stepmother was “deeply upset” when they murdered her, I was told last week.
Sir Rupert Jackson, a retired appeal judge who has known Alison Raeside for many years, said she was “as upset about this as everyone else and all your listeners”.
In an interview for my podcast A Lawyer Talks, the former lord justice of appeal (pictured above) said that a consent order Judge Raeside had made in 2019 could not be criticised. But she was “fearful” of the likely publicity after an anonymity order was lifted by the Court of Appeal last Friday. Raeside had twice been the victim of serious stalking and harassment.
Jackson thought the Court of Appeal had been right to allow reporters to name Raeside — as well as Peter Nathan and Sally Williams, retired circuit judges who had earlier, limited involvement in the Sharif case. But the former appeal judge said it would have been helpful if his successors had acknowledged that Mr Justice Williams — the judge who banned publication of the names in December — was drawing attention to real risks facing members of the judiciary.
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