A magistrate who remarked that people in Pakistan needed to be subdued with drugs ‘or they’d be off joining the Taliban’ has been issued with a formal warning.

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Mr Thomas Rock JP was the subject of a complaint to the North West Region Advisory Committee over the comment, which Rock had made during a panel discussion with fellow magistrates in the retiring room, according to a spokesperson for the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office. 

‘The panel was due to hear a case of possession of the controlled drug, Khat, in the afternoon session’, the spokesperson said. ‘During the discussion, it was mentioned that Khat was commonly used in Pakistan. In response, Rock made the remark that they had to keep people in Pakistan subdued or they’d be off joining the Taliban’.

Rock ‘expressed his concern that the complaint had been made’ and explained that he was previously unfamiliar with the term ‘Khat’ and had been trying to enlighten himself by discussing it with a colleague, according to the spokesperson.

‘He explained his belief that high levels of poverty in Pakistan, where it borders with Afghanistan and where there is a Taliban presence, feeds into the recruitment into rival gangs/factions operating in the use and production of drugs’, the spokesperson added.

Following an investigation, a nominated committee member found Rock had failed to act with circumspection, had indicated an unconscious bias about people from a certain group and had not shown any awareness of how his words and behaviour could affect others.

The nominated committee member considered that it had been ‘a single ill-judged remark’ that had been made in the privacy of the retiring room and ‘was made without malice’.

‘Mr Justice Keehan, on behalf of the lady chief justice and with the lord chancellor’s agreement, has issued Mr Thomas Rock JP with a formal warning for misconduct’, the spokesperson said.