The judge should have pounded his gavel (no pun intended) and announced a recess.

He would if he could, but he couldn't so he didn't (he was asleep)!

I am a poet but I don't know it

Well said SanSaiExPat...agree entirely.

(Our resident panel of judges, psychologists, forensic scientist etc. never fail to amuse me.)

I wonder what the response here would have been - if this was in Thailand...

You would get the usual idiot farang comments that this couldn't have happened in the west.

There's currently a heatwave of sorts in the UK. High temps can leave an older person sleepy and tired, which may be a causative factor.

are they not paid enough already to stay awake...

inactive post and golden pension ?

sickening if the rapist goes free because of this technicality