This year's Ebenezer Scrooge Award goes to David Cocks, QC, who has chosen the Christmas season to serve a summons on Felicity Hammerton seeking to end the £10,000 per year maintenance he pays for their lovechild child, also named David. Their one-year affair – he was her pupil master in chambers – took place in the 1970s. Earlier this year, it emerged in a parliamentary answer that Cocks receives almost £500,000 in fees for his prosecutorial work. At 71 he draws a state and a private pension, and also does private and and legal aid work, garnering another £200,000. He has a 200-acre farm in the West Country, which helps offset his tax liability. Felicity Hammerton lives on incapacity benefit of £74.56 a week and pays their son's university fees out of her modest savings. The son, who is registered disabled, wishes to continue full-time education. I have followed this sorry saga from the time when Cocks denied paternity on oath, through his efforts to exhaust Hammerton with legal ploys, through his attempts to take David out of private school, through criticism of his conduct by the Family Court – and now this. The hearing is set down for 3 January. I hope Cocks receives a visit from the Ghost of Christmas Future and is confronted with his hellish prospects.
