Judge tells Blunkett to 'butt out' over remark on speed-hump case

A judge told David Blunkett yesterday to "butt out" after the Home Secretary said he sympathised with a defendant who had removed a speed hump outside his house with a mechanical digger.

District Judge Brian Loosley said Mr Blunkett's comments could have influenced the case against Ian Beesley, who was convicted at Oxford magistrates' court of criminal damage.

Beesley, 42, was given a one-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay £263.32 compensation to Oxfordshire County Council and £500 prosecution costs. He told the court he taken the action after complaining to his local council that the noise of lorries passing over the hump kept him awake at night.

On the first day of Beesley's trial on Wednesday, Mr Blunkett told Sky News: "I am sorry he felt he had to do it. As someone who has been bedevilled in the past sometimes by sleepless nights I have to say that I have a great deal of sympathy for him. I am sure in court he will be big enough to apologise and the council will be big enough to find a solution."

Passing judgment yesterday, Mr Loosley said: "I am not sure politicians should be making remarks about court cases when they are in progress."

He highlighted the case of the former Tory cabinet minister Tom King, who he said had caused an IRA trial to be abandoned after making comments on television. "I had to think carefully about whether what Blunkett said was going to affect my decision in the case," Mr Loosley said. "Politicians should butt out of these cases until they are over, then they can make as much comment as they like."

The Home Secretary's official spokesman responded: "This seems a bit of an over-reaction given what the Home Secretary actually said. Comparisons with the collapse of an IRA trial hardly seem appropriate. The Home Secretary was commenting in general and expressing a view that he hoped the individual would apologise and that could offer a way forward."

Beesley denied the charge on the basis that he was protecting his right to enjoy his property but was found guilty.

The builder and his wife, Lillian, from Oxford, suffered weeks of sleepless nights caused by the noise of lorries going over the hump before he dug it up in November last year.

Beesley, who had recently suffered a stroke, alerted a local television crew to film the destruction, then handed himself in to police.

The court was told the noise outside his house was equivalent to a pneumatic drill and was four times louder than the level at which scientists say sleep is likely to be disturbed.

Mr Loosley said Beesley's actions were not reasonable, adding that he had sought publicity and had not given council officials enough time to respond to his complaints. He said that as "one human being to another human being" he sympathised with Beesley's plight, but it was not something he could condone.

Beesley said after the case that he was sorry for the expense and inconvenience he had caused. "All I ever wanted was a good night's sleep."