After the trial, papers were discovered in the jury retiring room showing that members of the jury had downloaded from the Internet material relating to the charges before them.
Held: The appeals failed. ‘the taking of this material into the jury room was a clear contravention of the important principle to which we have referred. It raises immediately the question of whether the convictions are safe or not, but upon close examination we are satisfied that these are convictions which are safe.’ There was no way in which the materials could in practice have adversely affected the defendants.
Judges:
Hugfhes LJ, Rafferty J, Sir Charles Mantell
Citations:
[2007] EWCA Crim 35
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Attorney General v Fraill and Another CACD 16-Jun-2011
Juror’s use of Facebook was contempt
The court considered whether a juror had committed contempt of court. She had communicated with a defendant via Facebook, despite explicit warnings not to use the internet.
Held: Both juror and defendant in the trial had committed contempt of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Criminal Practice
Updated: 09 February 2022; Ref: scu.278878
