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Henein took pains to praise the prosecutors in the Norman case for their integrity and professionalism. She was not as kind about the Prime Minister’s Office and the Privy Council Office, which she blamed collectively for withholding a host of documents, over months and even years, that she felt were crucial to her client’s defence.

“You should be very concerned when anyone tries to erode the resilience of the justice system or demonstrates a failure to understand why it is so fundamental to the democratic values we hold so dear,” she said.

“There are times you agree with what happens in a court room there are times you don’t. And that’s fine. But what you don’t do is you don’t put your finger and try to weigh in on the scales of justice. That is not what should be happening.”

Henein was 100 per cent clear on one point: the decision to stay the charges against her client, she said, repeatedly, was an independent one made without political interference. “The prosecutors in a high-profile case looked at the evidence and did what they’re supposed to do,” she said. “They said we don’t have a reasonable prospect of conviction. The DPP acted independently.”

Fortunately Vice-Admiral Norman didn’t fire the females he hired

But she followed that, too, up with a thinly veiled barb about the SNC affair, which centred on alleged political interference into the DPP’s decision on whether or not to offer the SNC Lavalin a deferred prosecution agreement.

“If it tells you anything, it should tell you that when she (the DPP) thinks she should prosecute, she goes ahead” — at that Henein paused almost imperceptibly and smiled just for an instant — “and when she thinks she shouldn’t, she declines to do so. That’s the way it should be.”