Claire Gilham, 62, said she had been victimised and became suicidal after her claims that courtrooms were unsafe and that judges had been saddled with excessive workloads led to her being bullied by another judge at Warrington County Court in Cheshire.

The same judge also encouraged barristers to appeal her decisions and would prohibit people from speaking to her in the judicial dining room.

A Supreme Court ruling in 2019 found that whistleblowers were protected in law. That decision allowed the judge to take her claim to the Employment Tribunal.

The case has now been settled for a “substantial sum”.

She refused to sign a gagging order, saying that her ordeal “could have killed me … I was extremely close to suicide on several occasions”.

She said there was a “culture of denial” about bullying and racism in the judiciary, adding that “if people do display a racist, sexist or classist attitude, they are not challenged”.

In one instance she said a judge impersonated an Asian witness in the judges’ dining room and that in another a defendant received a lesser sentence – because he “spoke nicely”.

A spokesman for the judiciary said: “We do not recognise all of the allegations District Judge Gilham is making … as being part of the grievances and employment tribunal proceedings which were settled without admission as to liability.”