You may have seen the story in this week's Guardian about the magistrate in Blackburn who allegedly branded two boys appearing before him 'scum' for defacing prayer books and damaging a cross in Blackburn Cathedral...if not, you may want to have a read, if only for the insight it provides into the mind of one of the many thousands of lay magistrates charged with "upholding the law, making communities safer places and contributing to the reform and rehabilitation of offenders" as the direct.gov.uk website puts it.

Having claimed that he was trying to use language the boys would understand, the comments only came to light because the court's clerk deemed them inappropriate, something the magistrate appears to have taken umbrage with.

Whilst it remains to be seen whether the training magistrates receive does actually include using this type of language as a way of 'communicating with young people', surely a better way of getting these kids to understand the true impact of their actions would have been to deal with their offences restoratively in the local community?

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