Judge brands court worker an 'illiterate idiot' after spelling word wrong four times on charge sheet

In an extraordinary outburst at the Old Bailey, Judge David Paget bemoaned declining standards of written English and branded a bureaucrat from the Crown Prosecution Service an 'illiterate idiot'.

In the papers, the official had consistently misspelt the word 'grievous', four times accusing the defendant of 'greivous bodily harm'. 

Letters of the law: Judge David Paget launched an extraordinary tirade about spelling mistakes in court papers at the Old Bailey yesterday

The judge also slammed the bureaucrat for stating that the defendant had used an offensive weapon, 'namely axe,' instead of 'namely an axe'.

After reading the charge sheet the judge threw the papers down on to the bench in disgust and fumed: 'It's quite disgraceful. This is supposed to be a centre of excellence. To have an indictment drawn up by some illiterate idiot is not good enough.'

The judge's was discussing a case at the Old Bailey which had been transferred from Wood Green Crown Court in North London.

He said he hoped Wood Green staff would take more care before transferring cases to the Central Criminal Court in future.

Last night Jack Bovill, chairman of the Spelling Society, defended the judge's actions but also pointed out that 'grievous' is a tricky word to spell.

'The judge has used rather strong language, but he's absolutely correct to pull up this official,' Mr Bovill said.

'In the legal profession it is vital that people get spellings correct as serious problems can arise from getting things wrong. The judge is right to say spelling is important.

'Some great minds, such as Winston Churchill and Albert Einstein, were not great spellers. Grievous is quite a difficult word to spell and some people can muddle through with poor spelling, but not in the legal profession.'

Last week a university professor was criticised for suggesting that college staff turn a blind eye to students' spelling mistakes.

Dr Ken Smith of Buckinghamshire New University said common misspellings, such as 'Febuary', 'ignor' and 'speach' should be considered as alternative spellings.