Pinochet victims, whose "instantaneous death" does not amount to torture, according to Clive Nicholls QC, representing the General at the extradition hearing. Nicholls argued that trade unionist Wilson Fernando Valdebenito Juica may have died instantly and therefore may not have suffered enough pain to amount to torture. However, Alun Jones QC for the Crown Prosecution Service retorts: "It's offensive even to suggest such a thing."

Ugly mugs, who are more likely to be found guilty according to research carried out by Dr Richard Wiseman of Hertfordshire University. Wiseman claims juries tend to convict large men with broken noses and eyes set close together while letting defendants with angelic faces and symmetrical features off scot-free. The researchers showed two teams of viewers a film of a judge summing up a case in court, with one baby-faced actor and one whose face fitted the criminal stereotype. The "criminal" actor was convicted by 11 per cent more viewers.

A sleepy Oxfordshire magistrate whose snoozing during a road rage case has led to the quashing of a man's conviction. The magistrate, who has not been named, fell asleep during the trial of Timothy Price, represented by solicitor Tim Brown of Brown & Pajak. Price now faces a retrial. The incident has been reported to the Lord Chancellor's Department.

Tony Blair, whose description of Chilean former dictator Augusto Pinochet as "unspeakable" has been seized on by Pinochet supporters who claim this shows that his arrest and detention were politically motivated. Blair made the remarks before the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth, as a four-day extradition hearing came to an end.

A businessman who accused senior judges of corruption, perjury and mafia connections. The Attorney General is now resurrecting the arcane form of contempt of court known as "scandalising the court", which was last used in the UK in 1931. Cheshire businessman Geoffrey Scriven, who is accusing judges of covering up legal misconduct in his divorce case, faces an indefinite prison sentence if found guilty. Scandalising the court dates back to 1344, but in 1899 the privy council said it had virtually died out. It was revived in 1900 for the benefit of a newspaper editor who described a judge, Mr Justice Darling, as "a microcosm of conceit and empty-headedness".