Premiership: Sunday Mirror may face charge over trial collapse

The Sunday Mirror may be charged with contempt of court following an article which led to the collapse of the trial involving Jonathan Woodgate and Lee Bowyer.

Mr Justice Poole said an article in yesterday's edition of the newspaper had created such a serious risk of prejudice that it was impossible to go on with the trial.

The judge, sitting at Hull Crown Court, also said he was referring the matter to the Attorney General for full consideration of contempt proceedings.

He said justice could not be done in atmosphere created by the article. He said the circumstances did not warrant a stay in the proceedings.

He said he was "deeply concerned" by the publication of a two-page spread in which the alleged victim's father Muhammad Najeib suggested the attack had been racially motivated, adding there was "a clear and substantial risk of prejudice raised by the article".

He said: "Whatever the intentions behind that publication, the effect for now is that all of that effort has been derailed.

"I am concerned that, for 10 weeks and many months before that, all interested parties have been striving for justice for the victim, the victim's family and the defendants who have an entitlement to a fair trial.

"This jury has applied itself, countless witnesses have attended to their considerable inconvenience. The result is that for now all that is de-railed."

After a delay of three hours, during which the jury were out of court while legal submissions were made, the 11 jurors were asked to retire for 10 minutes to come back with a "yes or no" answer to a question.

The judge asked: "Is any of you aware of an article in yesterday's Sunday Mirror whether by seeing it, or by discussing it with anyone else, or by any other means containing details of an interview with Mr Muhammad Najeib, the father of Sarfraz and Shahzad Najeib?"

They left and returned to court shortly afterwards. The foreman replied when asked by the judge what their answer was: "It's yes."