Chief Family Court Judge Peter Boshier did something yesterday for public respect for the judiciary, but not his prospects for retirement honours.

Saying the following cuts across the justice establishment’s efforts to soften us up for even softer sentencing:

“Twelve-year-olds, many of whom are committing quite heavy crimes, need to be more accountable than the present system is able to make them,” he said.

“What concerns me about the present situation is that for every 12-year-old criminal there is a victim. It’s the victim I am more concerned about.

“I believe we have to look for ways of making victims feel the system is more accountable and more potent. How exactly we do that is a matter for others but I definitely think the present system needs to be changed because it’s too difficult at the moment to make child offenders accountable.”

Despite my applause, Judge Boshier’s perhaps unwitting endorsement of Ron Mark MP’s current bill, again raises concern about politicisation of the judiciary.

There should be a convention providing a recognised process for eliciting the views of judges collectively on bills that they will have to implement, where their experience is especially pertinent. It should let us know the range and weight of judicial opinion, but perhaps not the opinions of individual judges.