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A BARRISTER claims his application to
become a judge has been turned down because he is not a
freemason.
Roger Everest says he was told 30 years ago
that he would never get on in the legal profession after turning
down an invitation to join the Dinas Llandaff lodge of the
Freemasons in Cardiff.
Last week the 64-year-old was informed by
the director of judicial appointments at the Department for
Constitutional Affairs that he was not being appointed a circuit
judge.
Earlier this year Mr Everest, who practises
from chambers at Pontyclun near Cardiff, had a claim that his
career had been blighted by his non-membership of the freemasons
rejected by the European Court of Human Rights.
Yesterday he said, "The judiciary in South
Wales is a closed shop which I believe excludes ethnic
minorities, women and men who are not part of a masonic network.
"After over 30 years as a practising
barrister on the Wales and Chester circuit with hundreds of
satisfied clients - not one of whom has ever made a complaint
against me - I am furious never to have been offered the
opportunity to sit as a judge.
"Through The Western Mail I call on the
Labour Government to appoint an eminent and impartial privy
councillor to investigate the many miscarriages of justice in
South Wales - especially the wrongful convictions that followed
the murders of Lynette White and Mr and Mrs Tooze - and to
publish a register naming judges who have ever been masons.
Judges should be appointed on their merit as lawyers,
independent of their standing among masons."
Mr Everest said he planned to meet his MP
Dr Kim Howells to discuss the matter.
He added, "It is my firm belief that there
is a masonic connection with the miscarriages of justice that
have occurred in South Wales."
In February 1998, the Home Office committed
itself to establishing public registers of Freemasons in the
judiciary and the police.
In a response to a report written by the
Home Affairs select committee, the Home Office stated, "The Home
Secretary proposes to make a formal request to the United Grand
Lodge (the governing body of freemasonry in England and Wales)
that they provide on a regional basis consistent with the
regional structure of the Lodges, the names and identifying
occupations and other necessary details of those who are or who
become freemasons in the specified professions and occupations.
"If the United Grand Lodge is unwilling or
unable to comply with this request, or to comply only partially
(for example because it does not itself have the data in the
required form) the government will initially make arrangements
for registers to be opened for all the specified professions and
occupations. All would be invited to register. Although at this
stage a failure to return information would not of itself be a
breach of conditions of employment, any nil returns would be
shown as such.
"The government will consult on where the
registers should be available but in any event it believes that
they should be publicly available.
"The government will address the need for
legislation having regard to the extent of compliance with
voluntary registers, once established."
John Hamill, director of communications for
the United Grand Lodge said, "The Home Office did not pursue the
idea of registers because of the incorporation of human rights
legislation into UK law. Article 14 of the European Convention
on Human Rights forbids discrimination against minorities.
"When a straw poll was done of judges
several years ago, less than five per cent were freemasons and
none of those responsible for judicial appointments were." |