Long-serving judicial JP retires in Northland

Retiring judicial JP Lindsay McCaw (centre) with wife Celia McCaw and Judge Philip Rzepecky at his farewell. Photo / Tania Whyte

Recently retired judicial Justice of the Peace Lindsay McCaw has seen many changes on the court front, but a large number of traffic offences isn’t one of them.

The Mangawhai-based former senior paramedic with Hato Hone St John last week called time on his 34 years as a judicial JP— three years shy of the retirement age of 65.

He was farewelled by judicial colleagues in the Whangārei Law Courts. Judge Philip Rzepecky was among those that attended.

“We’re still getting a large number of traffic offences coming through, and that hasn’t changed. The young lads with sustained loss of traction, that’s quite prominent. I am seeing more people driving without licences because maybe they can’t afford to go from a restricted to a full licence,” he said.

McCaw hails from Lawrence in rural Otago, and quite a few JPs in Dunedin “coerced” him into doing judicial training through an 18-month correspondence course with the Open Polytech in Wellington in the mid-1980s.

He moved to Nelson, where McCaw worked for 20 years as a judicial JP before shifting up to Mangawhai for family reasons in 2016.

McCaw joined the judicial bench in Whangārei because of low JP numbers, and had been travelling three to four times a month to sit on the bench.

“I’ve decided the time has come. I’ve got some medical issues that I have to address. Unless you’re doing this role reasonably consistently, you lose touch with some of the minor points that you need to be in tune with. It’s like any job.”

He’s encouraging young people to become JPs and do a range of diverse work that impacts people’s lives.

“We don’t really want to put people into custody if we can help it, but then we need to be able to protect society and protect the individual from the repercussions of what they did and to be able to help and guide them so when judges have to deal with them, it’s all part of the rehabilitation of an individual.”