TOP STORY: Fearful JPs suppress own names in court

LUCY CRAYMER
Security worries are believed to be behind a Justice of the Peace's decision to suppress both his and his fellow justice's name in the Hastings District Court yesterday. His suppression order related to not only the aggravated robbery deposition they were hearing but to all hearings they heard yesterday.
Royal Federation of NZ Justices Central Region representative Alison Thomson said although she had not spoken to the justices she believed the decision had been made because of fears for personal safety.
"It's not pleasant for someone who's doing a community service," Ms Thomson said.
To her knowledge, there hadn't been any problems in Hawke's Bay with justices harassed but there had been elsewhere in the country.
Ms Thomson said the region's JPs would wait until Chief District Court Judge Russell Johnson made a decision on the publication of their names.
Judge Russell could not be reached for comment.
Royal Federation of NZ Justices' Associations registrar Alan Hart said he sympathised with the justices who had concerns about their safety in small towns but found the move "most unusual".
"It hasn't really come up before and it hasn't been challenged whether names can be suppressed."
He said the difference between judges and justices was that often judges did not live in the towns where they worked. "The question has come up before about the publication of names," he said.
"It's always been a problem because of New Zealand's size." He said there had been instances in Palmerston North and Invercargill in which justices' houses had been targeted with paint pellets and fire bombs and had windows smashed.
But Faculty of Law associate professor Bill Hodge, of the University of Auckland, was stunned by the order: "I have never heard of it before."
Mr Hodge said the Criminal Justice Statute of 1985 did not provide for justices to suppress their own names and he knew of no other provision in law for the justice to do that.
He said the suppression went against the idea of open justice.
National Party Law and Order spokesman Simon Powers said it was "one of the top five most bizarre things" he had heard this year.
He said it was the equivalent of an MP not wanting the public to know how they voted in Parliament.