Legal Cheek associate editor Emily Jupp reviews Friday's re-trial of 1960s playwright and library-book defacer Joe Orton
“The old whore society really lifted up her skirts and the stench was pretty foul,” said criminal defence solicitor and Lib Dem councillor Greg Foxsmith on Friday night in Islington.
This wasn’t an indictment of modern society, nor a reflection of injustice in the English courts. Foxsmith – along with several other lawyers, including two from Hodge Jones & Allen – was performing in a dramatised re-trial of 1960s playwright and library book-defacer Joe Orton, and these were the words spoken by Orton following his conviction 50 years ago.