An English juror was jailed for eight months today after she used Facebook to contact a defendant in a drug case and discussed the jury's deliberations.
Joanne Fraill (40) admitted at London’s High Court to 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.
British taxpayers were left picking up a bill of £6 million after the judge was forced to discharge the trial jury.
Sewart was given a two-month sentence suspended for two years after being found guilty of contempt.
When the lord chief justice, Lord Judge, announced her eight-month sentence, Fraill put her head on the table in front of her. 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.
PA