Viagra plotters’ chance downfall
Perhaps the strangest thing about the trial of eight men and one woman for conspiring to supply counterfeit medicines was that some of them only met each other for the first time in the dock of Kingston Crown Court.
As this lengthy trial developed from the scheduled 12 weeks to a shade under nine months the defendants of what the prosecution alleged to be a global conspiracy got to know each other "quite well".
They were often seen chatting merrily to each other both in the dock and outside the courtroom.
By Jonathan Josephs
17 September 2007