Outbursts of emotion, even from first-time defendants facing a lengthy prison sentence, are rare. On that front, special mention must go to a defendant at Chelmsford Crown Court in August 2016, who, upon receiving his eighteen-month sentence for racist abuse, told Judge Patricia Lynch QC that she was ‘a bit of a cunt’. Her Honour’s reply – ‘You are a bit of a cunt yourself’ – was a little naughty, but also, in many ways, everything that could be said.2
