TONY Blair this week invited cries of "hypocrisy" by accusing the media of behaving like a "feral beast" that tears people apart in pursuit of sensation.

In the light of that speech, we wonder what the Prime Minister has made of the case of Sir Stephen Richards, the senior judge who was yesterday cleared of exposing himself twice to the same woman on packed trains.

It was manna from heaven for the sensation-hungry media: one of the country's most senior judges having to go into open court and defend himself against the woman's lurid account that his penis was twice fully exposed on the train, and that she had filmed it on her mobile telephone.

After telling the court that his sex life with his wife was mutually satisfying, and that he would gain no gratification from indecent exposure on public transport, Sir Stephen was even required to hold up a pair of Calvin Klein underpants, of the kind he wears, to show how difficult it would be to expose himself in them.

City of Westminster Magistrates found Sir Stephen not guilty because it came down to the accuser's word against his.

Irrespective of the verdict, Sir Stephen has been made a national figure of ridicule. From now on, even though he has been completely exonerated, he will be known as "The Flashing Judge" and millions will still suspect that there is no smoke without fire.

But this is not the fault of the feral media. It is the fault of the incompetent Crown Prosecution Service which allowed the case to go to court without any supporting evidence of the woman's account and therefore any reasonable prospect of a conviction.

And they say the criminal justice system is over-burdened.