A drugs trial has been aborted after it was revealed that up to five jurors had been too busy playing sudoku to listen to the evidence.

Sydney District Court Judge Peter Zahra had assumed his jurors were writing notes on the trial, but suspicions were raised when a court official noted that several of them appeared to be writing vertically. The foreman tried to excuse the behaviour claiming that sudoku provided him with a respite when there was too much evidence for him to take in, and that it was difficult for him to "maintain my attention the whole time".

A sudoku addict yesterday

Oddly the judge was unimpressed by this line of argument, and even though the trial had been running for sixty six days, it was abandoned.

A new trial is scheduled to start in a few weeks time.