Papers fined over online pictures of defendant

TWO national newspapers have each been fined £15,000 (€17,000) for contempt of court over internet photographs showing a murder trial defendant holding a pistol.

In March, the publishers of the Daily Mail and The Sun became the first website owners in Britain to be found guilty of contempt “online” when they were found to have created a “substantial risk” of prejudicing the trial of Ryan Ward.

Both had accidentally published uncropped or insufficiently cropped photos after the start of the September 2009 Sheffield Crown Court trial of Ward, who was later convicted of murdering mechanic Craig Wass by hitting him with a brick.