RAW sewage caused chaos at Hampshire's main court, forcing trials to be halted in Winchester, wasting at least £15,000 of taxpayers' money.

The stench of human effluent led barristers in the worst-affected courtroom to say they feared for their health, after the smell seeped into air conditioning pipes.

Other workers told how sewage had leaked through a ceiling and covered a jury officer's desk. They claimed it was not the only time raw sewage had leaked from pipes in the building.

The waste problem caused the closure of two courts. The stench could also be smelled in a third court, while two more shut because of unrelated problems.

The building's restaurant was also forced to shut and running water was switched off on all but the ground floor, as engineers struggled to locate and then fix the problem.

The seepage apparently started after a main sewage pipe in the building became blocked.

By Tuesday the stench had worked its way into the air ducts, feeding court three, a matter made worse because the air cooling system for that court had already failed last week when the central heating was turned on, meaning temperatures in the room reached almost 30C.

Barrister Robert Bolton said: "It is a vile smell and a terrible place to work. This building's on its last legs and something needs to be done."

In adjourning court three because of the smell, Judge David Griffiths told the jury: "Sitting in here for even just a few minutes, you do begin to feel queasy and it is entirely unacceptable. To sit with this stink all day is not fair on anyone."

Court manager Lisa Nother said she did not think there was any health risk from the spillage, but was waiting for a report from engineers.

She said: "The problem could not be foreseen.

"We take health and safety extremely seriously and we are now waiting for an engineer's report.

"Our assessment this morning (Wednesday) was that there was no direct health risk and that we could continue to run the courts."

She said that engineers would be working throughout the night to get the problem fixed, and was very hopeful that business would return to normal on Tuesday.

But, she added, a final decision could only be made yesterday morning (Wednesday) dependent on what the engineers had managed to achieve during the night.

The building, which was opened in 1974, is owned by Hampshire County Council but is leased and run by The Home Office.