In my debacle of 2018, when so much evidence had emerged of prosecution lying or mistakes, and two Not Guilty verdicts had been given during the trial, the Jury was about to be dismissed by the Judge when my (very good) QC took me aside.

He said "we have a problem. So many of the other claims have been wrecked by evidence we produced - examples - one false accuser proved he'd been lying about only having had contact with you once and another proved by his own testimony to have been a rent boy - the jury is certain to find you Not Guilty on all charges. However, if they are dismissed the CPS will ask for a retrial which is almost always granted and the element of surprise will enable the police and CPS to brief the false accusers to change their statements so the evidence is worthless and a new Jury might find you guilty".

I found this amazing but clearly true (my QC was really bright). Frightening that upholders of the law - police and CPS - would be prepared to commit crimes (attempting to pervert the course of justice).

I asked my QC what he would advise. He said "dismiss the jury - media described as Trial Collapsed - and I'll try to persuade the Judge NOT to allow a retrial".

So that was what we did. There had been so much evidence of police deliberately failing to disclose vital information and even of the CPS "misleading the court" that he felt we stood a good chance of getting a retrial disallowed - which, indeed, was what happened. Thank God we had a really good Judge who saw through all the dodgy behaviour.

But imagine if she had NOT been so good. Most Judges would simply not have noticed all the breaches.

And I still find it terrifying that police and lawyers are willing to break the law. Surely that is almost the end of the world?