A judge in the UK has revealed he was asked to sit on the jury in a case he was supposed to be hearing.
Keith Cutler, resident judge of Winchester and Salisbury, told jurors it took several attempts to get excused, the Guardian reports.
"I told the jury central summoning bureau that I thought I would be inappropriate, seeing I happened to be the judge and knew all the papers," Cutler said.
But officials told him it wasn't a good enough excuse, and he should apply to the resident judge for an exemption.
"I told them, I am the resident judge'. I had to phone them and they [eventually] realised it was a mistake."
Judges, lawyers, politicians, vicars, bishops and doctors have been eligible to sit on a jury in England and Wales since 2004, the Guardian reports. Only diplomats are exempt.
The UK Ministry of Justice says the "normal expectation" is that everyone else will serve but that "there will be occasions when it is not reasonable".
Newshub.
