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Jolyon Maugham fails again

Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

They say that April is the cruellest month but for Jolyon Maugham it seems to be December instead. Four years ago, the kimono-wearing, baseball-bat wielding KC infamously beat a fox to death, incurring much mockery and the opprobrium of the RSPCA for his boastful tweets about the slaying. And now the Babe Ruth of the bar has slipped up again for his online antics.

In his never-ending quest to signal his virtue, Maugham ended up risking contempt of court with his posts about the case of transgender schoolgirl Brianna Ghey, who was killed ten months ago in a Warrington park. The subsequent trial concluded today, with two sixteen-year-olds convicted of Ghey’s murder. According to the Guardian, the judge, Mrs Justice Yip, took a dim view of online commentators like Maugham who pronounced that the defendants were transphobic.

After the case was opened, the prosecution complained about a tweet from Maugham for declaring that the teenagers had exchanged ‘transphobic slurs’. Yip warned that Maugham’s post was potentially in contempt of court, with the fox-killing KC subsequently spoken to by the police and forced to delete his tweet. Maugham told the Guardian:

Some weeks back I deleted several tweets about the trial. I also said to the judge I would – and I think it’s important to do this when you make a mistake – publicly apologise. I haven’t been able to do that until now, now the trial has ended. The issues I raised are very important but it was the wrong time for me to bring them up.

Hardly a good look for the self-appointed saviour of the bar…

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Steerpike is The Spectator's gossip columnist, serving up the latest tittle tattle from Westminster and beyond. Email tips to steerpike@spectator.co.uk or message @MrSteerpike

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