Juror jailed after Facebook contact with defendant
Joanne Fraill, 40, was the first person in Britain to be convicted of contempt of court involving the internet, and the Solicitor General said her case should serve as a warning to other jurors.
“I hope it will act as a deterrent,” Edward Garnier told reporters, saying it had been in the public interest to prosecute.
“It’s important that the integrity of our justice system and the integrity of our jury system is maintained and preserved and seen to be so.”
Fraill admitted at London’s High Court to using Facebook to exchange messages with Jamie Sewart, 34, a female defendant who had been acquitted in an ongoing drug trial in Manchester last year.
She also admitted conducting an internet search into Sewart’s boyfriend, Gary Knox, a co-defendant, while the jury was still deliberating.
Taxpayers were left picking up a bill of £6 million after the judge was forced to discharge the jury when Fraill’s actions came to light when Sewart told her lawyer.
Fraill, who the court heard had contacted Sewart because she empathised with her, put her head on the table and sobbed as her jail term was announced.
Lord Chief Justice Igor Judge said in a written ruling she was “a woman of good character” and had not been involved in an attempt to pervert the course of justice.
But he said her actions had been flagrant breaches of orders made by the trial judge and also warned that a jail sentence for a juror committing similar contempt was “virtually inevitable.”
Sewart was given a two-month sentence suspended for two years after being found guilty of contempt.
