‘Twitter threat to jury trials’

COURT-BASED tweeting is likely to increase the risk of a mistrial and misuse of the internet by jurors must stop if the jury system is to survive, England and Wales’ most senior judge has said.

Lord Judge, the Lord Chief Justice, warned that it was all too easy for campaigners to bombard the micro-blogging site Twitter with messages in a bid to influence the outcome of a hearing.

“We cannot stop people tweeting, but if jurors look at such material, the risks to the fairness of the trial will be very serious, and ultimately the openness of the trial process on which we all rely would be damaged,” he said.

“We have to remember that tweets stay on the internet and to allow court-based tweeting is likely to increase the potential for prejudicial material regarding a defendant or a witness to become available on the internet.”

He added: “We welcome advances in technology, provided that we are its masters and it is our tool and servant.”

Speaking at the Judicial Studies Board in Belfast on Tuesday, Lord Judge also warned that schools were failing to train children to “sit still and listen for prolonged periods”, an essential skill for jurors.

Referring to his teenage grandchildren, he said: “Much of their school work is done by absorbing information from machines. They consult and refer to the internet. When they do so they are not listening.

“They do not, as we did, sit in class for 40 minutes listening to the masters and mistresses providing us with information.”