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Since Ian Judd retired as a bail justice, he has received 27 invitations to speak about the role.
He said audiences are continually surprised when they find out what being a bail justice involves.
Mr Judd stepped away from the role after 20 years when the Justice Department handed over training to Victoria University. He said said he wondered if the change prompted a lot of older bail justices to step down. The Bail Justice Working Party statistics show there were 350 bail justices in 1990 – today there are 230.
“The magistrates and judges have let plenty of people out that have committed offences afterwards and I just think the bail justices in Victoria were dealt a very unfair blow by the criticism levelled by Daniel Andrews and police,” he said.
“All that a bail justice does is remand someone in custody until the next court date and the real magistrate makes the decision.”
He said towards the end of his career, the damage caused by ice left him feeling very downhearted.
One case where harassed by family members prompted him install a home security system – however surprisingly the accused later came to apologise for their behavior.
“Sometimes I didn’t sleep so well after you came home. I just got used to it I guess,” he said. “I was threatened a number of times by people that you dealt with. Nobody thanked me for locking them up. I never had any problems outside the hearing.”
He labelled the night court as “political rubbish”.