Well, if ever there was a warning about how not to use Facebook, then the jailing of Joanne Fraill, the juror who contacted a defendant via the social media network, is surely it.
Let alone the footballer who took out a superinjunction who was named on Twitter, the use of Facebook in this way by this juror is obviously a more serious breach of the law.
Solicitor General Edward Garnier QC said that the case had to go to court to protect jury integrity.
Although the defendant, Jamie Sewart, had been cleared of drugs offences, other defendants were still on trial at the time of the unwise Facebook contact. The case against the defendants collapsed as a result of this as the jury wa discharged.
When sentence was passed against Fraill, she gasped "eight months" and sobbed uncontrollably, as did her family.
Lord Judge, hearing the case, said: Lord Judge said in a written ruling: "Her conduct in visiting the internet repeatedly was directly contrary to her oath as a juror, and her contact with the acquitted defendant, as well as her repeated searches on the internet, constituted flagrant breaches of the orders made by the judge for the proper conduct of the trial."
So, a juror who was merely exercising her basic human rights of freedom of speech and freedom of association gets eight months because she pressed a few keys on her mobile phone when she wasn't even in court.
ReplyDeleteHow on Earth did she break the law? Yes, she ignored the judge's directions; but these aren't law...merely his interpretation.
She swore an oath as a juror? Well, since she was forced to sit on the jury in the first place she was acting under duress and so the oath is null and void.
Thanks for your comment A.Lee.
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