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The judge in suspended Sen. Mike Duffy’s criminal trial appeared to be losing patience Friday with the defence’s long-running cross-examination of the prosecution’s first witness.

Judge Charles Vaillancourt urged lawyer Donald Bayne to get to the point in questioning Mark Audcent, the retired Senate law clerk on the stand for a third day in Duffy’s trial on charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust.

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Just one hour of Audcent testimony was in response to deputy Crown attorney Mark Holmes, who had him lay out the factors he considers important in deciding what province a person lives in — a key question for charges related to Duffy’s claims to be a resident of Prince Edward Island.

For the rest of the time, he has attempted to answer detailed questioning by Duffy’s lawyer about the precise wording of the Senate’s written rules.

At one point Friday, Holmes rose to ask how much longer Bayne planned to read a document and have Audcent agree with what the document said.