An unfortunate attack of the giggles.

As you may have seen in my previous blog I am currently clerking on a sexual assault case. The defendant is a Jamaican gentleman who has a very strong accent. This made his evidence in chief and cross examination rather difficult.

The unfortunate case of the giggles was brought on by the prosecution asking the defendant whether he has said "pussy clot" to the victim as she walked past. The prosecuting barrister is very well spoken, and probably says he lives in a "hice" rather than a house. Every time he said the word pussy a small snigger crept from the jury's direction.

According to the defendant this is a derogatory term used by Jamaicans to mean something akin to "idiot" and used in banter. The prosecution however were determined to get him to admit that he was using it as a slang for a vagina, repeating pussy is vagina over and over again. Cue even louder giggles.

To this the defendant replied "I would never use that word to refer to a woman's pom pom, that would be disrespectful". I think the mention of pom pom sent them over the edge. Of the 12 jurors all were laughing and a good few were either biting their fists trying not to, and others were actually crying. The court had to rise for a five minute break to compose itself.

Thankfully this morning the Judge was able to produce a slang dictionary to enlighten us what it meant. It is a derogatory term, so the defendant was right.

On a more somber note, I would like to echo the sentiments of others concerning the retirement of L2B/The Pupil from the world of blogging, but like all the others wish her the best of luck in pupillage and beyond.

In other news I have also chosen which Inn to join. More on that later.