Judge hides secret code in DaVinci Code case document

A SECRET code has been hidden in a high court judgment by the judge at the centre of The Da Vinci Code copyright trial.

Mr Justice Peter Smith took a leaf out of Dan Brown’s global bestseller to hide his own message in the 71-page court document.

It emerged that italicised letters in the first seven paragraphs of the document spell out “Smithy Code”.

Over the next few pages more letters stand out from the text in italics, but in an apparently random order.

The move to hide a message in a formal English high court judgment is thought to be unprecedented in legal history.

Mr Justice Smith refused to confirm that the letters were a code, but said: “They don’t look like typos, do they?”

He said: “I can’t discuss the judgment, but I don’t see why a judgment should not be a matter of fun.”

He added that he would probably confirm it if someone broke the code, which he said was “not a difficult thing to do”.

Mr Justice Smith ruled in favour of Mr Brown earlier this month after a hearing about the sources of The Da Vinci Code, which has sold over 40 million copies.

Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, who wrote The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, sued their mutual publisher, Random House, claiming that Mr Brown had stolen their ideas.

Both books explore theories that Jesus married Mary Magdalene, that the couple had a child and that their bloodline still exists today.

Would-be code-breakers of the judgment could look at the alphabet ‘codex’ code-breaking device found in the novel for inspiration.