Facebook juror jailed for eight months

Joanne Fraill pleaded guilty to contempt of court after contacting defendant, causing multimillion-pound drugs trial to collapse The first juror to be prosecuted for contempt of court for using the internet has been sentenced to eight months in jail. Joanne Fraill, 40, admitted at London’s high court using Facebook to exchange messages with Jamie Sewart, 34, a defendant already acquitted in an ongoing multimillion-pound drug trial in Manchester last year. Fraill, from Blackley, Manchester, also admitted conducting an internet search into Sewart’s boyfriend, Gary Knox, a co-defendant, while the jury was still deliberating. Sewart was given a two-month sentence suspended for two years after also being found guilty of contempt. When the lord chief justice, Lord Judge, announced her eight-month sentence, Fraill said “eight months!” and put her head on the table in front of her and cried. Fraill, a mother of three with three stepchildren, sobbed uncontrollably with her head in her arms, and the judge announced a short adjournment “for everyone to calm down”. Sentencing Fraill, the 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.” Later Sewart said: “I really feel for the woman [Fraill]. She’s got kids. She apologised and she’s not a bad lady. I really feel for her.” Fraill hugged relatives who were also crying before she was led away to start her sentence. Knox, Sewart’s 35-year-old partner, is applying for his conviction to be overturned on the basis of alleged jury misconduct. He was jailed for six years after being found guilty of paying a police officer to disclose information on drug dealers. Fraill and Sewart were found guilty of contempt at the high court on Tuesday , in a case heard by the lord chief justice, sitting with Mr Justice Ouseley and Mr Justice Holroyde. Fraill admitted emailing Sewart while the jury was still deliberating in the drugs trail in August last year because she felt “empathetic” and saw “considerable parallels” between their lives. Sewart, who was acquitted at the trial in Manchester, admitted knowing that Fraill was a juror in the trial when she added her as a Facebook friend during jury deliberations. Sewart asked her in a Facebook chat on 3 August “what’s happenin with the other charge??”, to which Fraill responded by asking her to clarify her question. Fraill then wrote: “cant get anyone to go either no one budging pleeeeeese don’t say anything cause jamie they could all miss trial and I will get 4cked to0.” The solicitor general, Edward Garnier QC, acting on behalf of the attorney general, Dominic Grieve, accused Fraill and Sewart of acting in “plain contempt of court”. Fraill, a mother of three, sobbed and rocked back and forth as details of her Facebook conversation and internet research were read out in the high court. Peter Wright QC, acting on behalf of Fraill, denied his client acted out of a “cavalier disregard” for the judicial process and told the court how the breach had left her “depressed, isolated and in utter despair”. Wright said Fraill was “distraught and inconsolable” at what had happened and “terrified” at the prospect of imprisonment. A psychiatric report on Fraill, whose husband was also in court, reveals a “most unhappy adolescence, a troubled adult life” and “domestic misfortune on a very considerable scale”, Wright said. •

Posted by on June 16, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.