Da Vinci Code judge floats own crypto conspiracy

Holy judgment hides secret messages

By Chris Williams • Get more from this author

Posted in Bootnotes, 27th April 2006 11:39 GMT

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The judge in the recent Da Vinci Code copyright trial is a bit of a cryptographer himself, apparently. Waggish syrup sporter Mr Justice Peter Smith inserted his own secret code into his judgment in favour of schlock king Dan Brown against the authors of Bible conspiracy nut bedtime favourite Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, The Guardian reports.

Smith italicised apparently random letters in the first part of the document to spell out “Smithy code”. While hardly an Enigma-esque feat of encryption, media lawyers who have been poring over the judgment for the last three weeks have only just noticed the gag.

After the “Smithy code” there's another 25 of the letters, though they're jumbled up. The dastardly Mr Justice Smith remained equivocal when The Guardian quizzed him on the issue. He riddled: “[They] don't look like typos, do they?”

Anyone with too much time on their hands can investigate the rest of the hilarious wheeze here.®

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Reg reader Ed Mozley reckons there's 31, not 25, letters in the undeciphered part of Smith's code. They are:

j a e i e x t o s t g p s a c g r e a m q w f k a d p m q z v

The race is on to find out what on Earth His Honour is saying. So far we have "scream toast sex gimp", but we were never any good at Countdown. It can't be a simple anagram anyway; two "q"s and no "u"s. Hmm. Smith says he'll cough as soon as someone figures it out.

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