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A High Court judge who told a sheikh involved in a multimillion-pound divorce battle that he could choose to “depart on his flying carpet” has been ordered to step down from the case.

Mr Justice Singer was also forced to apologise publicly after being roundly castigated by senior judges for apparently making “mocking and disparaging” remarks during a private hearing in the High Court Family Division.

Lord Justice Ward, sitting in the Court of Appeal, said that the judge had crossed the line of acceptability by making “thoroughly bad jokes which could be perceived as racially offensive”.

Mr Justice Singer admitted after the ruling that his comments had been “poorly chosen” but insisted that he had not intended to be racist.

A spokesman for the Office for Judicial Communications said that the Lord Chief Justice did not intend to take disciplinary action against the judge. However, the Office for Judicial Complaints can investigate the matter if a complaint is made.

Yesterday the Court of Appeal judges noted that Mr Justice Singer had said:

— That the sheikh could choose “to depart on his flying carpet” to escape paying costs

— That the sheikh should be available to attend hearings “at this relatively fast-free time of the year”

— That he should be in court so that “every grain of sand is sifted”

— And the sheikh’s evidence was “a bit gelatinous . . . like Turkish Delight”.

Sheikh Khalid Ben Abdfullah Rashid Alfawaz asked the judge to stand down on the ground that his remarks showed bias. When the judge refused, he took the case to the Court of Appeal, where a judge described it yesterday as “a singularly unsatisfactory, unfortunate and embarrassing matter”.

Lord Justice Ward said that Mr Justice Singer was a good judge, but added: “On this occasion he crossed the line between the tolerable and the impermissible.”

The case involves a claim by Wendy Ann El Farargy, 59, for a divorce settlement that is being contested by her husband, Nael Mahmoud El Farargy, 67. The appeal judge said that their finances were complicated, involving several offshore companies, one of which — McKellar Holdings Ltd — the sheikh claims to own. Lord Justice Ward explained that the couple lived in Qatar, then moved to Egypt, before returning to Britain.

Their final home was in Cobham, Surrey, which was bought for £1.7 million in 2003 in the name of McKellar, a British Virgin Islands company.

Immediately after the judgment by the Court of Appeal, Mr Justice Singer said in a statement: “I wish publicly to apologise to Sheikh Khalid Ben Abdfullah Rashid Alfawaz for these remarks. My comments were poorly chosen. They were not intended to be racist, nor have I ever intended any disrespect or disregard for the tenets of Islam, or for the sheikh’s Saudi nationality and Arab ethnicity. My judicial work and public speeches clearly demonstrate that I am in no sense racist.”

Mr Justice Singer was appointed as a High Court Judge in the Family Division in 1993 and is a past chairman of the Family Law Bar Association.

Lord Justice Ward said: “No little part of my embarrassment comes from my belief that the injection of a little humour lightens the load of high emotion that so often attends litigation and I am the very last judge to criticise laughter in court. For my part I am totally convinced that [the judge's] jokes were not meant to be racist and I unreservedly acquit the judge of any suggestion they were so intended.”

He and Lord Justices Mummery and Wilson allowed the sheikh’s appeal and ruled that Mr Justice Singer should, to use the legal terminology, recuse himself from the case.

'Who is Gazza'?

— During the trial of three men accused of terrorist offences in May, Judge Peter Openshaw said: “The trouble is I don't really understand what a website is.” He also asked a computer expert to “Keep it simple. We’ve got to start from basics”

— In 1990, the High Court Judge Sir Jeremiah LeRoy Harman famously asked: “Who is Gazza?” in a case involving the footballer Paul Gascoigne

— Judge James Pickles caused outrage when he jailed a single mother for shoplifting, telling her that women could not escape prison by getting pregnant

— Judge Ian Starforth Hill came under fire after saying that an eight-year-old girl rape victim was “not entirely an angel” in 1993. He was banned from hearing rape cases

— Judge John Prosser let a 15-year-old rapist go free, in 1993, ordering him to pay his teenage victim £500 “for a good holiday”. The Court of Appeal later increased the penalty to a two-year prison sentence

Source: Times Database

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