Of course. Its in the UK publication, The Daily Mail, so it may never get any publicity here in the USA at all.
Good question. IIRC, sometimes a judge does it on his own; sometimes he is asked to through a court filing by one of the parties in the case. No mention of either in the article.
Why did the judge recuse himself?
Who knows.
We had a friend, who was being crucified for so called illegal blocking of a dry creek during the rainy season because a red legged frog might have been there.
His out of town/county lawyer keep getting pictures of judges and asst DA’s attending green functions.
The judges whined and so did the asst DAs when they were accused of bias with their past donations and attending green nazi functions.
Finally, when he and his lawyer approached the third judge, the case was put into a legal limbo, and it was dismissed.