Sir Jan Peter Singer (10 September 1944 – 22 December 2018) was a judge of the High Court of England and Wales.
[1] Singer was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham, then at Selwyn College, Cambridge.
The application that he should withdraw from further participation in the matter arose because the judge had made a number of jokes about one of the parties in the case, Sheikh Khalid Ben Abdfullah Rashid Alfawaz.
In his judgment in the Court of Appeal Lord Justice Ward (sitting with Lord Justice Mummery and Lord Justice Wilson) said, of the remarks complained of, that: Unfortunately, every one of the four remarks can be seen to be not simply "colourful language" as the judge sought to excuse them but, to adopt [counsel's] submission, to be mocking and disparaging of the third respondent for his status as a Sheikh and/or his Saudi nationality and/or his ethnic origins and/or his Muslim faith [3][4][5] In a statement after the judgment, issued on his behalf by the Judicial Communications Office, the judge said: “I wish publicly to apologise to Sheikh Khalid Ben Abdfullah Rashid Alfawaz for these remarks.
A claim in the family division of the High Court failed to award any child support, after the judge, Justice Singer, had asked "Do you seriously expect Mr Nuttall to sell his shooting rifles for child maintenance?"