Over the last three weeks the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had told a London jury that tax barrister Robert Venables KC Venables ‘ought to have been paying more tax than he was’, after charging him with three counts of cheating the public revenue.

After hearing from the tax barrister’s gardener, a ‘lifelong friend’, his bookkeeper, and an HMRC officer involved in the tax inquiry, it was finally time for Venables to take to the stand.

Appearing at Southwark Crown Court wearing a dark blue suit, light blue shirt, and black tie, Venables was questioned by his defence barrister, Stuart Biggs KC of Cloth Fair Chambers.