From top: ‘Protect the Children of the Poor and Punish the wrongdoer’- Inscription outside the Old Bailey Central Criminal Court, London, England; David Langwallner

My mother brought me up to believe in the idea that the worst thing you could do was lie and, absent small lies, lying in general should be condemned – particularly the lying of the powerful who are too adept at getting away with lying.

Truth is not truth, as Mr Giuliani stated recently, and as all Neo Cons seem to adhere too closely, as they police the distinction between fact, semi-fact and the establishment of nonsense through social media and reverse social engineering in Covid times.

Well, to the temple of truth.

In my entire life and career, I have only appeared in the most famous court on Earth on three occasions – a slightly insignificant token appearance; a major trial victory; and, today, a sentencing with a packed gallery. Not me the case. My mother would not have believed it but would not have thought it enough either. Irish mothers!!!

Now the Gothic splendour outside is also mirrored by the cavernous darkness inside, particularly the first floor with all the inscriptions embossed in dark, foreboding letters relevant to our time

‘Protect the welfare of the people and the supreme law. ‘

‘Protect the rights of Londoners.’

As you leave the building and gaze upwards to see the famous balancing scales of justice, more important, though less imposing than the statue, are the words on the door, inscribed in 1912 as the motto of that court:

‘Protect the Children of the Poor and Punish the wrongdoer.’

So, protect the welfare of the people and the children of the poor and all Londoners and punish the wrongdoers. Quite Right. But, what is right and wrong?

As I did the case today, I was told The Krays were there and I once, in fact, represented the remnants of them. The Court also involved the farce and miscarriage of justice that was Edith Thompson. And I was told the very court I appeared in today, before I went in, was where Oscar Wilde lost his libel action.

The great British actor Charles Laughton, who memorably played an Old Bailey hack in Witness for The Prosecution, made one foray, in an illustrious career, into film directing and though a complete failure at the time it was his greatest achievement and one of the greatest films ever made, “The Night of The Hunter”. (1955) About the protection of children.

The face of the great silent movie actor Lillian Gish, unretired for this film, front ends the film with bright stars and children’s faces floating and twinkling all around her, as she issues a stern biblical warning about the good and evil of the world for children and it is children who are pursued and victimised in this film. Now what should children be warned about in our day and age and how should they be protected?

These issues are far from clear so let us impose some clarities, how do we protect The Children of The Poor as The Old Bailey motto says and against whom exactly?

More to the point, a child is a person who a certain type of nefarious adult patronises and indeed exploits.

So false sex complaints, in a skewed family law and criminal justice system, fanning the flames of public hysteria often for masked political reasons. And undermining the children of the poor by the nefarious rich. Take a bow Sergeant McCabe. Thus, our corporate bandits are involved in the grubby business of the destruction of the innocent.

In Schiff’s recent book about The Salem Witch Hunt (2015) Satan figures large. But who is Satan?

It is, at one level, noticeable how, in Freudian terms, the false allegations stemmed from a conversion disorder, a transformation or a sublimation which causes the hysteria of persecution and prosecution and of course, as the book makes clear, this hysteria is easily accomplished in this day and age among social workers and with the dubious enlistment of an authority figure such as a family lawyer or a police officer as a triage of police officers with overlapping roles and social workers often engaged in leading question. Getting the answer they want. Such issues in our twisted universe often arise when a relationship structure has broken down often due to financial considerations.

When hunger comes, love goes out the window (Mexican proverb) and the disposal of the no-longer-loved makes economic sense. The strange warping of our universe.

The process of establishing criminality is also deeply flawed in many legal systems. Given that the police either actively frame people or negligently do not know what they are doing, or simply do not care, I do think as elements of the Innocence Project have suggested that pre-charge disclosure of all police investigative techniques should be shared.

There are also stages of criminality. John Valjean from Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables (1862) was maliciously persecuted by a criminal prosecutor for many years for his theft of a loaf of bread.

Those that are systematically economically and environmentally destroying the world are not being prosecuted but manipulating governments with handouts and bribes. The lubrications of world capitalists and whistle-blowers are prosecuted.

Now the historical incident in Salem referenced above has plagued American society and consciousness ever since. Culturally thus, they are very conscious of the same and the modern variants are the communist persecutions both in the 1920s and 1950s, The McCarthyism Era.

The later political witch hunt led to Arthur Miller writing the famous play The Crucible (1953) using Salem as a historical metaphor for what happened then. Of course, Miller himself was targeted by the witch-hunt, as were many communists sympathisers, or indeed even those with a slight leftist tinge.

We are currently  living in an extreme age of demonisation. A new-born age of witches and witch hunts.  But the Old Bailey thinks otherwise, as do some Britons. The residue of Orwellian decency in English public life.

At least the Westminster magistrates court had the courage to stop the Assange prosecution. Though the American appeal is this week, and one wonders if the stressors and commitment to the rule of law of the UK system will hold. The glue is falling apart.

Thus, endorse the motto of the Old Bailey and bang the tin drum to protect the children and innocent of this world and to prosecute the guilty.

And why should Mr Assange be extradited to face 175 years and dehumanised incarceration for seeking to protect the innocent of the world?

What wrong has that done? He violated the laws of state criminals in a twisted universe.

David Langwallner is a barrister specialising in public law, immigration, housing and criminal defence including miscarriages of justice. He is emeritus director of the Irish Innocence project and was Irish lawyer of the year at the 2015 Irish law awards. His column appears here every Tuesday and Friday. Follow David on Twitter @DLangwallner

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