First juror guilty of contempt via internet faces jail

THE first juror ever to be prosecuted for contempt of court involving the internet sobbed as she was warned she faces jail.

London’s High Court heard that Joanne Fraill, 40, from Manchester, admitted using Facebook to contact Jamie Sewart, 34, a defendant already acquitted in a drugs trial in Manchester.

The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, said the court could not announce sentence yesterday.

But he warned Fraill, who had been “distraught” throughout the hearing, the court did not think there were any circumstances in which she could avoid an immediate jail sentence.

Sewart denied contempt, but the judges ruled the case against her was “proved”.

However, Lord Judge, sitting with two other judges, told her she would receive a suspended jail order. The judge said Sewart’s own trial led to her lengthy separation from her baby and it would not be in anybody’s interest to “remove the mother from her child again”.

The exact penalties in both cases will be announced tomorrow.

Sewart, of Bolton, had earlier said in evidence that she had never attempted to find out what had gone on in the jury room but just wanted to know when the trial, that had been going on for years, would end.

Lord Judge, sitting with Lord Justice Ouseley and Mr Justice Holroyde, announced the court did not feel in a position to decide on sentence in her case, or Fraill’s.

He said the court first needed to hear an appeal by one of the defendants from the Manchester trial, convicted drug dealer Gary Knox.

Knox, 35, was jailed for six years for conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office.

His challenge against his conviction on the basis of alleged jury misconduct was heard immediately by the same judges after the contempt proceedings.

After hearing argument on his behalf that his conviction was “unsafe” in the light of the internet contempt, the judges announced they would give their ruling tomorrow.