Da Vinci Code judge does it again

The previous code celebrated HMS Dreadnought's builder

The judge who put coded messages in his judgement on the Da Vinci Code plagiarism trial has written another.

Mr Justice Peter Smith is promising a donation to development work at his old Cambridge college if someone comes up with a correct solution within a month.

As before his code - in a Selwyn College alumni newsletter - involves a scattering of italicised capital letters, in this case UTUCJBOTTOLLAL.

He dismisses "pompous" complaints his trial codes were a misuse of his time.

Mr Justice Smith said he hoped the case would generate interest in the law and help people to understand it was "not quite the remote dry atmosphere that is often portrayed by those who have axes to grind".

He reveals that, although the codes had been easy to create, he made one mistake "which I retained because we had printed 50 copies of the judgment before I spotted it".

Unsung hero

There is no clue as to the subject of his new code.

The ones in the trial judgement read: "Smithy Code Jackie Fisher who are you Dreadnought".

They referred to Admiral Jackie Fisher, who built HMS Dreadnought - the first modern warship.

He said later Fisher had been "our nation's second greatest admiral" who in his view merited a statue in Trafalgar Square but had disappeared completely from the nation's history.

In the Selwyn newsletter article, Mr Justice Smith said the case had given him his own "fleeting moment of glory or notoriety depending on your view".

He had been invited to the première of the film of the Da Vinci Code and - "more importantly" - to the opening of a new exhibition on Dreadnought, in Portsmouth.

'Modern judges'

As an amateur military historian the trial had fascinated him, requiring careful control of the public and press.

He had conducted it with a briskness that had surprised most people, he said.

But that was "the modern way". He and his fellow judges are "a modern dynamic group" presiding over a range of important cases.

As well as the Da Vinci Code trial, he said, he had heard cases involving Lennox Lewis and Kylie Minogue's bottom.

Selwyn's development and alumni relations office said its newsletter had just gone out but it had already received one suggested solution to the new code.

The Hon Mr Justice Peter Smith will be the competition's sole judge.