Judge Constance Briscoe arrested

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Created on Tuesday, 09 October 2012 00:00

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Briscoe, 55, one of Britain's first black female judges and author of Ugly memoir, has been bailed pending further inquiries

Caroline Davies

One of Britain's first black female judges, who published a best-selling misery memoir about her childhood, has been arrested and questioned by police.

Constance Briscoe, 55, a barrister and part-time recorder, was detained in Clapham, south-west London by officers from Kent police and later released on bail pending further inquiries. She has been suspended from the judiciary.

Police would not give details of why she had been arrested, or name her. In a statement, a spokesman said: "A 55-year-old woman was arrested in Clapham on Saturday 6 October. She was interviewed by officers and then bailed pending further enquiries."

A spokesman for the Office for Judicial Complaints said: "The lord chief justice and lord chancellor have suspended Constance Briscoe from the judiciary pending the outcome of the police investigation into the allegations against her. It would be inappropriate to comment further while the investigation is active".

Briscoe is a high-profile lawyer, having published a memoir, Ugly, as well as appearing as a panellist on Question Time. The book, in which she detailed abuse she claimed she had suffered growing up in south London, landed her in a legal battle with her mother.

The Newcastle University graduate, who is the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, claimed her mother, Carmen Briscoe-Mitchell, neglected her, beat her for wetting the bed, and taunted her about her looks. Her mother unsuccessfully sued for defamation.

Details of her private life appeared in newspapers this year when she spoke of the break-up of her relationship with Anthony Arlidge QC, then 76 and a highly experienced silk with whom she had lived for 12 years, who left her for a 25-year-old trainee barrister.

Recently she said she had aspirations to be a crime novelist.

Briscoe, a mother of two, was called to the Bar in 1983 and appointed a Recorder – a part-time judge – 15 years later.

Source: Guardian UK