Mr Justice Mostyn has spoken out in court about the “abysmal” behaviour of a litigant in person who threatened judges, sent abusive e-mails and assaulted the opposing counsel.
The “routine” ancillary relief claim, involving net assets of about £1.3m, followed a 20-year marriage. Mostyn J questioned why a four-day hearing was listed in the High Court and why the wife had incurred costs of about £150,000.
“The answer is the conduct of the husband,” he said, in Veluppillai v Veluppillai [2015] EWHC 3095 (Fam). “It has been truly abysmal.”
He said more than 30 hearings including four appeals had been mounted by the husband since the claim was commenced in 2012. The man had made threats to kill the wife and her counsel, had had to be removed from the courtroom by security staff, and had been repeatedly warned by judges about his “unpleasant menacing conduct in court”.
Mostyn J said: “On one occasion he assaulted both the wife’s counsel and the wife in court for which he was later convicted of assault in the magistrates’ court. He skipped his sentencing hearing and fled abroad from where he has bombarded the court with abusive e-mails.”
A warrant for the man’s arrest has been issued by magistrates.
