A judge has named and shamed a litigant in person, who had said the judge and his clerks should be executed in a gas chamber.

In his judgment in a divorce case, Mr Justice Mostyn said that he would waive the couple's normal rights to privacy in order to expose the husband's "truly abysmal" conduct. He said that Michael Veluppillai's "extreme" behaviour had forced the court to hold over 30 hearings. And over the course of his many appearances, Veluppillai had been repeatedly warned about his "menacing and unpleasant" behaviour, which included advocating the execution of Mostyn and his clerks in a gas chamber.

Veluppillai also threatened to kill Mrs Veluppillai and her counsel, for which he was jailed for contempt. On another occasion he physically attacked them in court and was convicted of assault. Veluppillai then skipped the sentencing hearing and fled abroad from where, Mostyn said, he has bombarded the court with abusive emails and claimed that proceedings should be adjourned indefinitely because he has a fatal illness.

"I can't compete. His strategy - flawless."

Mostyn quoted some of Veluppillai's correspondence in order to paint a picture of his character:



He also referred to emails Veluppillai had sent to his clerk. The first email included a classic litigant-in-person error: "MOSTYN I WANT THE FUCKING ANSWER NOW" he wrote, instead of the technically-correct, "DEAR JUDGE I WANT THE FUCKING ANSWER NOW".



The second email demonstrated Veluppillai's mastery of legal analysis :

 
Veluppillai was ordered to transfer over £700k of asset to his wife and pay the £146k of costs she had accumulated over with his vexatious hearings. Mostyn said he had also forwarded Veluppillai's emails to the court to the Metropolitan Police to decide whether the threats amounted to criminal offences.