The second couple to be tried, Jonathan and Caroline Spooner from Great Dunmow, married in 1985.
They met when she was a trainee nurse and he was a radio DJ. They are now joint directors of a holistic medicine business.
He first saw her on the wards at Cuckfield Hospital in Sussex. He said: “It was difficult to pin her down because trainee nurses work in different places, so I made it my task in life to find out more about her.”
Eventually, he left a potted chrysanthemum outside her door.
The couple now have two children. Barrister Daniel Pitt said: “Are they called Bill and Ben?”
They agreed that the honeymoon he planned wasn’t very romantic. They went to Southend and the Isle of Dogs. Caroline said: “There was an oil refinery there, it wasn’t a honeymoon destination.” People in the audience booed when Jonathan said he hadn’t wanted to waste money on a honeymoon.
Caroline explained that she didn’t have an engagement ring because nurses couldn’t wear rings on duty.
Speaking for the bacon, barrister Steve Bugeja said: “There was no engagement ring or planned honeymoon. There was a lack of prior planning.” It reminded him of Michael Gove.
He told Jonathan: “It started with stalking, you talked to her friends about her shift patterns. You are not doing a lot of good for the already bad reputation of radio DJs in the 1970s and 1980s.”
The jury was divided. There were gasps from the audience when on a majority verdict they found for the bacon.
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