The defendant appealed against his sentence for contempt of court in having taken photographs of a criminal trial. The trial had had to be aborted as a result of the effect on members of the jury of the appellant taking photographs in court. He knew of the prohibition on photography in court. The judge accepted that the appellant however had not intended to cause any disruption or to frighten jurors, and perhaps that he had no intention of disseminating the pictures afterwards, but nonetheless found him guilty of contempt and sentenced him to a term of imprisonment.
Held: The accepted basis of the guilty plea, that no intention to disrupt was proven, did not make the plea equivocal, that is, as containing the assertion of facts which, if they might be true, would provide a defence.
Citations:
[2013] EWCA Crim 614
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Criminal Sentencing, Contempt of Court
Updated: 08 May 2022; Ref: scu.564991