British Judge Who ‘Excused’ Father’s Abuse of Child Quits

LONDON — A 72-year-old judge, who blamed an “unreceptive” pregnant woman for causing the frustration that drove her husband to assault his 12-year-old stepdaughter, has resigned in the wake of the furor over the case.

In announcing the resignation, the Lord Chancellor, the highest judicial authority in Britain, said he wanted to put on record his “personal disapproval” of the remarks.

“It is regrettable that a judge should have expressed himself in a way that suggested that there are any circumstances that can excuse or condone indecent assault on children,” Lord Mackay, the Lord Chancellor, said.

The action by Judge Sir Harold Cassel has provoked political and social outrage across the nation.

In setting a two-year probation term for the 30-year-old child molester last week, Cassel noted that the wife’s pregnancy had led to “a lack of sexual appetite in the lady and considerable problems for a healthy young husband.”

“This is a time when ladies are naturally not very receptive to their husbands,” the judge commented.

The defendant had admitted twice molesting his stepdaughter when she was 12 and a third time when she was 13 and the mother was in the last month of pregnancy. The crime carries a maximum prison term of 10 years.

Cassel--who already had announced his plans to retire at the end of the year--later observed: “By these words I have brought this man’s trial to an end, but they bring me to trial by public opinion.”

One Tory member of Parliament, David Wilshire, said: “Since the judge is inviting public opinion, I am happy to be a member of the jury. He should resign without delay.”

“Does this mean that all men whose wives are pregnant have the right to abuse children? It is beyond belief,” the assaulted girl’s mother also had said, in calling for the judge’s resignation.

The Lord Chancellor’s office announced Friday evening that it had received a letter of resignation on health grounds from the judge, written the day before the controversial trial decision.

Cassel’s action has revived the recurring notion that the British judiciary, appointed by the Lord Chancellor, is drawn from a too-narrow, upper-crust legal elite.