A stalker who waged vendettas against two of Britain's leading judges and issued threats to cut them “into little pieces” has been detained in hospital indefinitely. Richard Kendal, 62, suggested he would “release the hounds” on Sir Andrew McFarlane, former president of the Family Division at the Royal Courts of Justice, and turned up at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in a bid to confront Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring.
Psychosis and Delusional Disorder
Kingston Crown Court heard that Kendal suffers from psychosis and a delusional disorder. The court also heard he harbours “deep suspicions of a judicial conspiracy” stemming from a bitter divorce battle in 2009. By 2021 Kendal had sent abusive letters to around 50 judges and issued personal threats to Sir Andrew, and went on to persistently target Judge Goldspring and his legal adviser Elizabeth Hardy.
In March this year, Kendal, from Wandsworth, south London, was deemed unfit to stand trial due to his health issues. A jury then heard evidence and concluded he had been responsible for racially aggravated stalking of Judge Goldspring, stalking against Sir Andrew and Ms Hardy, and breaching a High Court order aimed at protecting his ex-wife Ruth Garner.
Fear for Personal Safety
The court heard that Kendal’s actions had left Ms Hardy and the judges fearing for their personal safety, with Judge Goldspring worried that he would be targeted as he left court or at his family home. On Tuesday, Judge Marcus Tregilgas-Davey ordered that Kendal be detained indefinitely in a hospital for mental health treatment to protect the public. He said Kendal “remains fixated with the idea that authority figures are engaged in a conspiracy” against him.
The judge told him: “You were embittered by the financial divorce settlement and the very sad fact is you have allowed that to overwhelm you. It has ruined your life.”
Threats and Emails
Prosecutor Laura Blackband told the trial that Kendal was “unable to move past the end of his marriage” and was dissatisfied with the outcome of the divorce proceedings. “He has devoted his energy over years into pursuing vexatious litigation against his ex-wife, waging personal and unpleasant vendettas against some of the judges – including Sir Andrew McFarlane and Paul Goldspring – and engaging in intimidation and threats to his ex-wife,” she said.
In 2021, Sir Andrew, who was then the senior judge in the Family Division, became aware of Kendal’s habit of criticising judges, making vexatious applications to the court and threatening them with criminal prosecution. In January 2021, Kendal sent an email referring to Sir Andrew’s heart surgery which said: “Your days are over McFarlane. You need to focus before you are made to regret ever waking up off that operating table last July. You have a narrow window before I release the hounds.”
In January 2024, he attempted to launch a private prosecution against Mrs Justice Arbuthnot, who was Chief Magistrate before becoming a High Court judge in the Family Division. Judge Goldspring, a colleague and friend of Judge Arbuthnot, passed Kendal’s application on to another judge, but then found he had inadvertently “triggered Mr Kendal’s deep suspicions of a judicial conspiracy”, said the prosecutor. He received a stream of emails which included threats of assassination and murder, antisemitic slurs and references to the Holocaust, and suggestions that he would be arrested and jailed.
Judge Goldspring told the court Kendal appeared to believe he was at the centre of a conspiracy, and Kendal, who is Jewish, said in one email that he had placed a QR code in his shop directing people to Holocaust imagery and a suggestion that the judge was complicit. The claims were “frankly disgusting”, said the judge, adding that he found them “deeply disturbing and deeply upsetting”. He added: “He talks repeatedly about me being too gutless to face him.”
Impact and Sentencing
The judge received hundreds of emails from Kendal between January 2024 and July last year, and on two occasions in April 2024 he turned up at Westminster Magistrates’ Court – where the judge regularly sits – in a bid to confront him. “His behaviour had become more erratic and threatening in the emails,” said the judge. “The security at court is not great, you have to leave next to the entrance to the public. It made me feel very uncomfortable and anxious about my personal safety, and if he followed me home, my family’s safety.”
Ms Hardy told the court Kendal was a “genuine risk”, as he portrayed her in the emails as a “loyal sidekick” to the senior judges, and included a death threat declaring they would be cut up “into little pieces”. “I was scared that he would try something,” she said. “Would he try to cut me up into little pieces? Probably not, but I thought he might harm us in some way.”
When Kendal was questioned by police about his threats to “suspend that bastard McFarlane” and telling the judge to “resign before I put you in prison”, he suggested he could not remember sending the emails. He claimed to have once been a multi-millionaire before his life was “destroyed”, and also suggested his emails had been hacked by the Government. The court heard that Ms Garner received 33 “highly abusive” emails across five months from Kendal, despite a 2013 High Court order banned him from threatening or intimidating her.
At Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, Judge Tregilgas-Davey was told Kendal has resisted taking mental health medication and does not believe he has a disorder, he has threatened to sue his doctors, and is engaged in “vexatious” litigation against the Metropolitan Police and his mortgage provider. Kendal’s barrister, Jeffrey Israel, said he had gone into a “sad spiral” after the divorce battle that ended his 13-year marriage, but insisted he is “not a violent man” and would not have acted on his threats.
The jury found Kendal had been responsible for stalking involving fear of violence against Sir Andrew between January 2021 and July 2025, racially aggravated stalking involving fear of violence against Judge Goldspring between January 2024 and July 2025, stalking involving fear of violence to Ms Hardy over the same time period, and breach of a non-molestation order between March and July 2025. A new restraining order was imposed on Tuesday, banning Kendal from contacting Sir Andrew, Judge Goldspring, Ms Garner, Ms Hardy and retired High Court judge Sir Nicholas Mostyn.
