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Judge cries over smooth silk

An older man going out with a younger woman is not a new tale in any walk of life. But when a top QC breaks up with his (already significantly younger) high-flying judge girlfriend to date a junior barrister 50 years younger than him, Folklaw thinks it is worthy of being brought to your attention...

user iconBrigid O Gorman 15 August 2012 SME Law
Judge cries over smooth silk
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An older man going out with a younger woman is not a new tale in any walk of life.

But when a top QC breaks up with his (already significantly younger) high-flying judge girlfriend to date a junior barrister 50 years younger than him, Folklaw thinks it is worthy of being brought to your attention...

Constance Briscoe, described by The Telegraph in the UK as “Britain’s most successful black judge”, was in a relationship with 75-year-old QC Anthony Aldridge for 12 years, but the relationship abruptly ended when Aldridge left his 55-year-old girlfriend for a 25-year-old trainee barrister.

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Clearly having a girlfriend a mere 20 years younger was not young enough for this smooth-talking silk...

The situation is further complicated by the fact Aldridge is still married to his first wife, Enid, even though they separated more than 30 years ago. That’s right you math whizzes out there, before his current lover was even born...

Briscoe, who hit the headlines previously after she wrote a memoir about her difficult childhood entitled Ugly, doesn’t seem to hold too much ill will towards her former paramour, describing him in The Telegraph as a “great guy”, though she does add that “he’s bonkers and I’ve told him that”.

Folklaw thinks Briscoe is more forgiving than most given the circumstances. She also revealed that shortly before Aldridge left her for this young flame they had bought a house together in the south of France and had been making plans to retire there.

Aldridge’s new love, Heather Lockwood, won’t be thinking about retiring anytime soon. The young barrister was called to the Bar two years ago but has yet to find a pupillage.

Folklaw isn’t casting aspersions, but everyone, including Judge Briscoe, knows the value of good contacts...

“I can’t comment on her motives ... [but] it really is a catfight out there and contacts have always helped,” she said in The Telegraph.

Aldridge, who is now living with Lockwood in London, hasn’t said much about the whole affair, other than saying he and his young lover are very happy and that he has met her 54-year-old mother and she approves of the liaison. Aldridge is quoted as saying: “I’ve met her mother and she says if her daughter is happy then so is she.”

Indeed folks, and we wish the unlikely pair every happiness too; Folklaw likes nothing more than a happy ending that proves our eternal cynicism wrong...

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