As jurors sat day after day in a courtroom listening to testimony from 105 witnesses in a drug trial, it seemed as if some were taking their duties very seriously indeed. They were spotted assiduously taking notes, prompting the judge to compliment them on their diligence. But when one defendant saw they were writing vertically, not horizontally, the secret came out - they had been playing sudoku.
Yesterday the million-dollar trial at Sydney district court was abandoned after the head juror admitted she and four or five others had been playing the popular numbers puzzle for almost the entire hearing.
Questioned by Judge Peter Zahra, the head juror said she had found some of the evidence during the 66-day trial drawn out and that playing the puzzle helped her focus. She admitted some jurors had copied sudoku games and compared results during breaks. She had spent more than half of the trial playing the game.
