Kyril Burrows and Delcina Bean-Burrows frequently got into trouble with Puisne Judge Charles-Etta Simmons during their long-running trial, with the judge accusing them of delaying proceedings and being “obstreperous”.Bean-Burrows landed in hot water before the trial even began by abusing two prosecutors involved in the case. She was charged at Magistrates’ Court and convicted after a trial, of two offences of insulting behaviour against Larissa Burgess and Kirsty-Anne Kiellor.She called both the prosecutors “bitch” during an incident on April 29 2011 at Global House on Church Street, where the Department of Public Prosecutions is located. Bean-Burrows was handed a six-month conditional discharge and apologised for her behaviour.After the trial began at Supreme Court, Ms Kiellor again complained about Bean-Burrows’s behaviour.With the jury out of the courtroom, she told the judge that Bean-Burrows had been misusing the prosecutors’ e-mail addresses, which she had been given in order to communicate about exhibits in the case.The incident happened after police raided the Burrows home early on March 2, uncovering what turned out to have been documents faked on the couples’ home computer.The same morning, Bean-Burrows sent Ms Kiellor, Ms Burgess and prosecutor Susan Mulligan an e-mail message saying: “May the Lord our God bless and keep you.”Reporting concerns over the incident to the judge, Ms Kiellor said that, given Bean-Burrows’s previous behaviour, the religious message seemed to be “some sort of attempt, not necessarily at intimidation but something, with the history of this matter, such to insult the Crown.”The judge warned Bean-Burrows about her behaviour and set up a procedure whereby the defendants would e-mail a member of the Supreme Court staff instead of the prosecutors directly.She explained this was so “you don’t overstep the bounds either accidentally or in any way that could be a contempt of the court process”.The pair also incurred Mrs Justice Simmons’ displeasure on numerous other occasions due to the delays they caused to the case, which ended up running for 12 weeks instead of the anticipated six to ten.Among the issues were:l Deciding to represent themselves rather than having a lawyer, meaning the start of the trial was delayed.l Burrows complaining that the prosecution was presenting a “blueprint” of construction plans to a witness, and arguing that his own printer did not print in blue ink.l Bean-Burrows not standing up when she was addressed by the judge, and refusing to abide by the judge’s direction to stop putting questions to a witness.Meanwhile the trial ground to a halt for several days in March when Bean-Burrows complained that she was unwell. The following month, her husband was taken ill. He was admitted to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital complaining of chest pains and later came back to court complaining to the judge: “They discharged me so I could be here (in court.) I’m still experiencing pains in my chest.”Mrs Justice Simmons replied: “I made it clear in my e-mail if you were admitted to the hospital I did not want you to leave the hospital to come here so if they discharged you, they discharged you because they wanted to.”She then called his doctor on to the witness stand to question him under oath about a note he sent saying Burrows needed another week off.She told the doctor: “This case has been going on for some time now and I have some concerns that the defendants have caused some delay in this case.”She continued: “The defendants have not been, shall I say, looking out for their own interests. They have not collected disclosed materials when they were supposed to … other arrangements had to be made so we could ensure they had those disclosed materials.“Once the trial started, once we had made arrangements for the disclosed materials to be collected, they decided not to collect them. They decided they were not taking it … I take them to both be intelligent, educated people. I can only believe they were being obstreperous.”She also told the doctor: “I don’t want him collapsing but will it be necessary for him to have a week off? There are a lot of people involved in this trial. We have 12 jurors. Their businesses are not happy.“What the Government gives them every day is about fifty bucks, I think, so it goes no way to offsetting the loss the employer would suffer from having them here.”The case resumed two days later.Defence lawyer and Opposition politician Mark Pettingill, who was not involved in the case, said the judge found herself in a tough position.“It’s difficult having unrepresented defendants who don’t know better. All the judge can try to do is give them guidance and directions. If what they are doing does not amount to contempt of court, all you can do is urge them along,” he told The Royal Gazette.As for the judge’s remark about the jurors’ employers not being happy, Mr Pettingill said: “You can’t fault the employers in these times.”