Lengthy trial folds as forewoman plays Sudoku

These accused were/are facing life behind bars. The forewoman is quite frank since she correctly determined there would be no consequences for her or her friends on the jury.

A THREE-month drugs trial has been aborted at a cost of "millions" after the jury's forewoman admitted playing the number game Sudoku for at least half of the trial.

The District Court trial in Sydney, which cannot be identified for legal reasons, was aborted late yesterday, on the 66th day of evidence, after Judge Peter Zahra was told one of the accused men had noticed the jury playing the game.

The forewoman was brought into the court and asked by Judge Zahra to estimate for how much of the trial she had been playing the game.

"I don't know, at least half of it I'd say, I usually have it at hand," she said, explaining that "maybe four or five" others on the jury played Sudoku or other games.

She added: "Yes, and we discuss it sometimes, or the word games out of the newspaper sometimes are written down as well."

The judge asked: "Do jurors bring those games into court. And they're playing those games during the course of the evidence?"

"Yes," the forewoman replied.

The woman said she had begun playing Sudoku "quite early on" in the trial, "probably when the surveillance evidence was on" which was estimated to be a couple of weeks after the trial began.

More than 100 witnesses had been called so far.

The forewoman went on to say that the puzzles would be copied into their notebooks and other jurors would "read it over (their) shoulder or look next to them".

The judge said the activities of the jury were "breathtaking", especially given regular directions that the jury ensure the "integrity of the trial".

Legal sources estimated the cost to the taxpayer would run into "millions".

One said it was generally estimated that the cost of a District Court trial per day was well in excess of $20,000.

On that figure, this trial would have cost close to $2 million.

In making his decision to discharge the jury, Judge Zahra said it was clear both the Crown and defence cases had been affected.

"(The juror) appears obviously quite frank and it is not only obviously the Sudoku puzzle, but it appears a number of them come armed with the view to completing a word puzzle during the course of the day and then, during the breaks, discuss what their conclusions are or what they have concluded from the puzzle itself," he said.

"It appears that this has occurred very much for a significant period of the trial. The only word I can use is breathtaking - despite my repeated directions to them that they are judges and that they must also have an obligation to preserve the integrity of the trial process, to quite openly defy that."

Extraordinarily, the case had almost collapsed once before after a sheriff's officer was accused of making comments within earshot of the jury as one of the men standing trial was giving evidence -- but Judge Zahra rejected an application to discharge the jury as it could not be proven anything was said or overheard. The case returns to court in two weeks.