Judges belonging to trade union GMB have called on the lord chancellor to remove Helen Pitcher from her role as chair of the Judicial Appointments Commission after she quit the Criminal Cases Review Commission claiming she was ‘scapegoated' over the Andrew Malkinson case.

Pitcher resigned as CCRC chair last week after receiving a report from an independent panel convened by lord chancellor Shabana Mahmood. Mahmood decided last summer to begin the process for removing Pitcher from her post after a KC-led review found the CCRC failed Malkinson, who spent 17 years in prison for a rape he did not commit.

In an interview with Gazette columnist and legal commentator Joshua Rozenberg for his A Lawyer Writes podcast, Pitcher said she intended to complete the remaining year of her appointment as chair of the JAC.

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However, Lord Falconer, who served as lord chancellor under the Blair administration, said Pitcher should resign from her JAC post. Former Labour MP Chris Mullin, whose campaign led to the release of the Birmingham Six, also called for her to go. Today, trade union GMB’s judicial branch, which says it has 170 members, joined the calls. 

JAC commissioners are appointed under schedule 12(1) or the Constitutional Reform Act, by the King on the recommendation of the lord chancellor.

In a letter to Shabana Mahmood, GMB's Stuart Fegan, writing on behalf of the judicial branch, said: ‘We do not believe that a person who is unfit to lead the Criminal Cases Review [Commission] should be overseeing the appointment of judges. A discredited JAC chair reflects badly on judges as the JAC appoints judges and therefore undermines public confidence in the justice system.’

The JAC has been approached for comment.