David Eady Appeal for his conduct during the 2009 libel case involving Richard Desmond and Tom Bower. Eady disallowed several pieces of evidence against Desmond which the Appeal Court ruled were clearly relevant to the case. The Court of Appeal judges ruled that Eady's decision was "plainly wrong" and "might lead to a miscarriage of justice". After hearing the evidence, the jury found in favour of Bower. In December 2009, Eady commented in "The Guardian" on some of this criticism, saying that "The media have nowhere to vent their frustrations other than through personal abuse of the particular judge who happens to
Robert Bower (Conservative politician) of the House and struck Bower in the face, before turning to the Speaker, apologising and walking out of the chamber. Bower also then apologised to the Speaker, and no disciplinary action was taken against either MP. The context of this violent confrontation was a series of questions being put by Labour MPs to the Foreign Office minister R. A. Butler, challenging the government's apparent recognition of the Duke of Alba as a diplomatic representative of General Franco's nationalist forces, who were then in the midst of a civil war against Spain's Republican government. Shinwell had described Butler's answers as