Judge adds Da Vinci plot twist

The judge who presided over the Da Vinci Code plagiarism case added his own twist by hiding a secret code in his written judgment.

Mr Justice Peter Smith left a conundrum in his High Court ruling in favour of author Dan Brown this month. Mr Brown had been accused of using ideas from another book for the best-selling

novel. The 53-year-old judge, a military history enthusiast and expert on the sinking of the Titanic, hinted that the assortment of italicised letters in his ruling were more than just typographical errors.

He said: "I can't discuss the

judgment, but I don't see why a judgment should not be a matter of fun." He said he would probably confirm it if someone broke the code, which was "not a difficult thing to do".

Lawyer Mark Stephens, a media specialist at London firm Finers Stephens Innocent, appears to have broken the code.

In an online blog, he writes:

"The judge refers readers to a sentence in paragraph 52 saying it would help figure out what he meant. That sentence reads: 'The key to solving the conundrum posed by this judgment is in reading HBHG and DVC.' A better clue might be for you to look at the italics in the judgment."

Hiding a message in a formal High Court judgment is thought to

be unprecedented. Lawyer Dan Tench, of London firm Olswang, said he noticed the code in an online copy of the judgment.He said: "It's out there. I think he was getting into the spirit of the thing."

Read the judgment

www.hmcourtservice.gov.uk/ images/judgment-files/baigent-v-rhg-0406.pdf