Welsh Judge resigns over ‘Rent Boy’ Allegations

From Solicitors Journal 12/07/10:

A Welsh Crown Court judge alleged to have put a rent boy on the bench describing him as a law student has resigned after a 12-month-investigation by the Office for Judicial Complaints.

The investigation started after Judge Gerald Price QC, a senior circuit judge in South Wales, was alleged by the News of the World to have had a nine-month relationship with prostitute Christopher Williams, aged 25 at the time.

Williams claimed that Judge Price, who is married, paid him a monthly allowance and let him sit on the bench as a law student and before that watch trials from the press gallery.

I know law students are hard up these days but really?

Gerald Price was suspended on 30 June 2009, when the investigation started.

The OJC said it only focused on allegations that had an impact on Gerald Price’s role as a judge.

It concluded that his actions brought the judiciary into disrepute and made his position “untenable”.

Hmmm. No arguments there.

[Price] has stood unsuccessfully as a Conservative candidate at three general elections and is an Anglican lay reader.

Aha. All is coming clear.

The big question, though, and assuming the allegations are true,  is why bring your rent boy to work at all?  Unless, I’m missing something?