Judge Keith Cutler said he would have have enjoyed the opportunity to serve as juror on another case, but in this case it “would be inappropriate seeing I happened to be the judge and knew all the papers”.

The judge was first told by the Jury Central Summoning Bureau, which is responsible for summoning jurors in England and Wales, that he would have to apply for the resident judge to be excused.

He told BBC News: “I told them ‘I am the resident judge’. I had to phone them up and they realised it was a mistake.”

Judge Cutler added: “I would have liked to have done the jury service to see what it was like and whether I would have liked the judge.”