His Honour Judge A J Adeane: "You're a fucking egg!"

I missed this story when it came out on stuff but after hearing National Radio's distressed legal commentator talking about it the other day I had to look it up:
Judge takes plenty of prisoners
By the end of proceedings, Judge Tony Adeane had sentenced two young mothers to prison - one whose baby was just three days old - put a graffiti vandal in custody, ordered a man arrested for disrupting court, and put that man's mother into custody when she tried arguing.
Nearly all who came before him got a dressing-down and, by lunchtime, those still to enter the dock looked worried.
Some chattered nervously - and were promptly ordered by the judge to keep quiet.
The first indication of things to come was when Napier graffiti vandal Randall Gray, 19, was put into custody...

That's right the maximum possible penalty for shoplifting is 3 months and Judge Tony Adeane sentences a mother with a three day old child to 2 months in jail! This character is totally out of control. Read on:

A short time later, Brenda Keil - three days after giving birth to her third child - was sentenced to two months in prison for shoplifting and breaching community work.
Judge Adeane said Keil, 21, had "grotesquely thought she would not be sent to prison because she had young children".
He then reeled off a long list of prior offending. He said he regretted putting anyone with young children in jail, but Keil had left the court no option.
Her 19-year-old partner in crime, Destiny Gerbes, who has two children under three, was given four months in prison for the same offences.
"Ms Gerbes has a cavalier attitude to community responsibilities, including her children. You ... take the attitude that `I've got a couple of babies, no one's going to do anything to me' ... and that's where you've made your mistake," the judge said.
Gerbes' friend Cedric Ratima yelled out, "You're a f...ing egg" and was arrested.
He was held in custody till later in the day, when he was made to say sorry to the entire court.
The judge deemed his first attempt half-hearted, so ordered him to try again - this time to say he was very sorry.
Ratima's mother, Alicia Teau, then piped up, saying her son had already apologised.
Judge Adeane hauled her into the dock to explain herself. Unable to do so to his satisfaction, she joined her son in custody. Both later apologised sincerely and were freed.

Grotesque alright. National Radio's commentator said the total value of the stolen goods they both took was $203.11 and that the judge refused to adjourn the matter to a later date. The commentator said the Hawkes Bay judges operate a "get tough/be tough arrangement" quite at odds with normal practice elsewhere. He said many lawyers have left the area because they cannot deal with that sort of extraordinary regime.

This is exactly the reason why the new Sentencing Commission was established - to harmonise and even out sentencing between areas and offences. There is no formal method of disciplining judges in our system except actually dismissing them via parliament. This must change.