Valerie Groves on John Mortimer: the Sleeping Juror & the Oz Trial

2 more vignettes from "A Voyage Around John Mortimer" by Valerie Grove:

1) The Sleeping Juror which was related by Richard Eyre in his published diary.

There was a sexual harassment case in which a woman witness was too shy to say what had been said to her. The Judge told her to write it down. She duly concurred with the words "Do you want a fuck?" The note was passed around the court and ended up with a dozing juryman who was sitting next to an attractive woman. The woman prodded the Juryman awake and gave him the note. He read it, looked at her, smiled and put the note in his pocket. The Judge asked for the note to be returned. "Merely a private matter my Lord" said the Juryman

2)The OZ trial. OZ #28 The School Kids issue 1971.

The 3 defendants were Richard Neville, Jim Anderson and Felix Dennis. George Melly, the renowned Anarchist and surrealist, was giving evidence. Judge Argyle a dyed-in-the-wool reactionary commented. "Well pardon me for those of us who did not have a classical education, what do you mean by the word 'cunnilinctus'?" (as if it were a cough medicine Geoffrey Robertson the libertarian QC later pointed out). Melly elucidated for him. "Sucking, blowing or going down or gobbling or, as we said in my naval days, 'Yodelling in the Canyon'." In 1997 the British entry in the  'Song for Europe' Contest was "Yodel in the Canyon of Love" (sic).