Defendants have sometimes defiantly given the finger to the court that was about to condemn them but last week Remi Fakorede went further.

Facing conviction in a £1 million state benefits fraud prosecution in London, Fakorede suddenly pulled out a tissue containing three small severed fingers and waved them to the court. Following gasps and an emotional reaction from jurors, the case was halted temporarily.

Fakorede said the fingers were from her baby daughter. She claimed they had fallen off as the result of a Voodoo man’s curse and that she had been forced to commit a tax credit fraud under threat from the same demonic Voodoo man - and a relative known as Auntie Marian. As defences go, that is an unusual one.

Fakorede, 46, ran the scam for five years submitting false state benefit claims on behalf of various imaginary families including 39 false claims for phantom children. Fakorede’s elder daughter was recruited to launder £925,933 garnered from the scheme. The authorities were alerted to the criminal enterprise after Fakorede made claims for non-existent childcare. The suspicions of officers were confirmed after all the relevant regular payments were terminated but none of the named beneficiaries complained.

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After the finger incident in court, DNA tests demonstrated that the digits were indeed from Fakorede’s baby daughter. The child had evidently suffered from gangrene after kidney failure. Fakorede, who was shown to have lied consistently to get the £925,933, ran a hairdressing salon and owned two properties in East London. She was also in receipt of a £40,000 annual income from Nigeria.

Sentencing her to five years imprisonment last week at Southwark Crown Court, Judge Jacqueline Beech told Fakorede: “I find you to be a thoroughly dishonest woman. Your conduct in court was a barefaced attempt to manipulate the jury”.

This was not the first time fingers detached from a body have appeared in an English court. In 1631, a condemned defendant in Salisbury expressed his displeasure with the court by throwing a large stone at Chief Justice Richardson. At that moment, though, the judge happened to slouch “in a lazie recklesse manner” and so the missile narrowly missed him, flying over his head. He later wryly observed “if I had been an upright judge, I had been slain”.

The judge’s response was prompt and did not involve sending the defendent on an anger management programme. He ordered the immediate amputation of the defendant’s right hand. It was cut off in court and then fixed to the gibbet where the defendant was hanged.

Professor Gary Slapper is Director of the Centre for Law at The Open University

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