The defendant was giving evidence and that evidence had reached the point where following his evidence in-chief, he was being cross-examined by counsel for a co-defendant prior to being cross-examined again by counsel for the prosecution. There was a break in the proceedings and, as the jury were on their way out of court, one of them sang words of the Fleetwood Mac song ‘Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies’. The judge had to deal with this outburst and decide what to do; he decided to discharge the individual juror, explaining to that juror that he had to consider how the outburst would have looked to an independent and impartial observer. He then informed the remaining jurors of this decision and enquired as to whether each of them considered that they could continue to try the case properly and fairly. Each of them did, so the trial continued with 11 jurors and in due course the defendant was convicted.
On his behalf Mr Cherrett submits that the judge should have discharged the whole jury not merely the one juror, and that the prejudice caused to the defendant by this outburst at a critical point in the case was simply irremediable.
Held: The course taken by the judge was clearly correct. It was quite sufficient to discharge the single juror who had by singing this song in court expressed prejudice and done so indeed in a way which may have been considered a contempt of court. But it was quite unnecessary and inappropriate for the judge to have discharged the jury as a whole and required the case to start again . . the fact that the offending juror had been discharged must have acted as a salutary reminder to the jury of the need not to exhibit prejudicial conduct.
Citations:
[2021] EWCA Crim 360
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Regina v Kellard, Dwyer, Wright CACD 5-Aug-1994
Appeal on a multiplicity of issues from convictions recorded in the course of a trial which lasted about a year.
Held: In large fraud trials, the prosecution should consider severance of the indictment to shorten the length of individual . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Crime
Updated: 27 October 2022; Ref: scu.660774
