A petition is currently being organised to urge the king to revoke his appointment of the new Chief Judge after it was revealed that his LGBTQ lifestyle might violate Tonga’s law, which prohibits sodomy.
Malcolm Lesley Bishop, 79, KC of Wales, UK, has been appointed as Tonga’s new Chief Justice.
He is expected to start his new role on September 1, this coming Sunday.
The petition stems from the revelation that Mr Bishop and his late partner, Anthony Vander Woerd, another man, lived together as a gay couple for 51 years.
Woerd, 71, a businessman, was shot and killed in front of Mr Bishop on a Caribbean island in 2019 during a robbery, according to Gloucestershire Live.
Following the homicide, Mr Bishop sustained injuries to his forehead and nose. He and his partner were rushed to a nearby medical facility for medical attention.
The Legal Futures website reported earlier this month that Mr Bishop is an LGBTQ barrister, and he is open about his sexual orientation and gender identity.
The online legal news source also reported Barrister and TV personality Rob Rinder as saying that he had previously named Mr Bishop as his LGBTQ hero.
Rinder also reportedly said that in 2021, Mr Bishop “was an out gay barrister when I arrived in chambers over 20 years ago” and described him as “somebody that I looked up to, who was quite literally modelling a life that I aspired to”.
Same-sex marriages have been legal in England and Wales since March 29, 2014.
Churches and legal stakeholders in the kingdom were planning petitions and marches to the king, urging His Majesty to rescind Mr Bishop’s appointment.
Tongan sodomy law
Lawyer Clive Edwards said Mr Bishop’s gay lifestyle, in the eyes of the law of Tonga, was regarded as committing sodomy.
Tonga’s Criminal Act section136 about Sodomy and bestiality says:
“Whoever shall be convicted of the crime of sodomy with another person or bestiality with any animal shall be liable at the discretion of the Court to be imprisoned for any period not exceeding ten years and such animal shall be killed by a public officer. (Substituted by Act 9 of 1987)”.
In 2016, the then-former Chief Justice Charles Cato sentenced and jailed Sione Iketau with the final 12 months being suspended after the prisoner was convicted of sodomising a child under the age of 12.
“That’s man and man living as a married couple”, Mr Edwards said of Mr Bishop in Tongan.
According to Mr Edwards, Mr Bishop, as Chief Justice, is considered a public figure, which means that he can be criticised by the public.
“He is the head of the third branch of government in Tonga,” Mr Edwards told an interview with FM87.5 Broadcom.
“He is breaching the law of Tonga”.
Mr Edwards was uncertain whether Mr Bishop could be impartial when presiding over cases involving sodomy in his capacity as a judge.
Auckland-based Tongan lawyer Nalesoni Tupou said Mr Bishop’s appointment heralded what appeared to be a transformative period for Tonga.
“Oku fakaofo e moui Foou oku oatu ehe Eiki Fakamaau Lahi he oku moui fakasotoma”, Tupou wrote in Tongan on Facebook against Mr Bishop’s LGBTQ lifestyle.
Mr Bishop could not be reached for comment.
He has 56 years of experience as a barrister, but he reportedly did not apply for the job. He said he was approached earlier this year.
According to the protocol, the king’s Judicial Panel, led by Lord Ramsay Dalgety of Scotland, selects the Chief Justice before seeking the king’s approval for the appointment.
Kaniva News was unable to reach Lord Dalgety for comment.
Mr Bishop’s appointment as LCJ is for a fixed term of four years, and although he would not reveal the salary, it was “reasonable”.
He added that he was “well outside” the statutory retirement age of 75 for judges in England and Wales (he is 80 this year), but Tonga “was not ageist”.
Christian life
After attending Ruabon Grammar School near Wrexham in Wales, he pursued theology studies at Oxford University.
More recently, he started translating the New Testament into modern English, much of which was done during Covid, and had recently published The Gospels – a lawyer’s translation from the original Greek. He said his translation of the whole of the New Testament would be published by the end of the year.
