Judge refuses to court attention

High-profile celebrity cases handled same as others, mild-mannered veteran jurist says

Lin Meimei finally took her son to watch the cartoon film The Minions recently, after letting him down a number of times. "Reading court papers and studying cases robbed me of the time I would otherwise have spent with him," said Lin, a judge who became popular after hearing a series of criminal cases involving celebrities, such as Guo Meimei and Jaycee Chan.

Lin was under the spotlight after she sentenced Guo, a micro-blogger whose online posts tarnished the reputation of the Red Cross Society of China in 2011, to five years in prison and fined her 50,000 yuan ($7,840) on Sept 10 for organizing illegal gambling. Guo confessed to her crime and did not appeal to a higher court.