Hey, you're right! I can't believe that didn't occur to me, though, like so many people, I've been completely distracted by the question of how exactly Sherlock executed his "death". *g*

All of your questions are ones fans should be considering. Why didn't anyone recognize Rich Brook at the time of the trial? Unless Kitty is a really crappy journalist, I would have thought that she would check out Rich Brook's story and watch at least one of the episodes of this children's show he hosted. Then, as you've also pointed out, there's the question of Brook's involvement with Sherlock's supposed crimes. Hmm...Maybe the Sherlock team took a page out of Russell T. Davies' book and had Moriarty hypnotize everyone. *g*